
Class ^ V "^ '^ 2> 

Book ■M3 

Copyiig]itK^_ 



CQEmiGHT DEPOSm 



MONEY THE ACID TEST 



CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING 
MISSION STUDY 

Send the proper one of the following blanks to the secretary of 
your denominational mission board whose address is in the "List of 
Mission Boards and Correspondents" at the end of this book. 

We expect to form a mission study class, and desire to have any 
suggestions that you can send that will help in organizing and 
conducting it. 

Name 



Street and Number 

City or Town State . . , 

Denomination Church, 

Text-book to be used 



We have organized a mission study class and secured our books. 
Below is the enrolment. 

Name of City or Town State 

Text-book Underline auspices under 

which class is held: 
Denomination Church Y. P. Soc. 

Church Men Senior 

Women's Soc. Intermediate 
Name of Leader Y. W. Soc. Junior 

Address Sunday School 

Name of Pastor Date of starting 



State whether Mission Study Class, Frequency of Meetings. 
Lecture Course, Program Meet- 
ings, or Reading Circle Number of Members . . . 



Does Leader desire Helps? , 

Chairman, Missionary Committee, Young People's Society 



Address 

Chairman, Missionary Committee, Sunday School , 

Address 



MONEY THE ACID TEST 



STUDIES IN STEWARDSHIP, COVERING THE PRINCIPLES AND 
PRACTISE OF ONE'S PERSONAL ECONOMICS, FOR USE IN 
BIBLE CLASSES, DISCUSSION GROUPS, YOUNG PEO- 
PLE'S SOCIETIES, AND SIMILAR GATHERINGS 



BY 

DAVID McCONAUGHY 



NEW YORK 
MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT 
OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 

1918 






COPYRIGHT, I918, BY 

MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE 

UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



^SEP 21 1918 



''Vvx? 1 



TO ALL 
"STEWARDS OF THE MANIFOLD GRACE OF GOD" 
WHO LOOK UPON ALL OF LIFE AS A SACRED 
TRUST AND WOULD SO USE IT AS TO HAVE "A 
CONSCIENCE VOID OF OFFENSE TOWARD GOD AND 

MEN ALWAYS " 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Foreword ix 

I Stewardship 3 

II Acquiring . . . . . . . -31 

III Spending 51 

IV Saving . . , 71 

V Giving 93 

VI Proportioning . . . . . .. - 115 

VII Accounting 135 

VIII Influencing Others , .165 

Brief Bibliography for Supplementary- 
Reading 189 

Index 191 



FOREWORD 

New conditions of need in the world are calling 
for new standards of stewardship in the church, or, 
rather, for new applications of the divine and unchang- 
ing standards of giving, as well as of living and serv- 
ing. The challenge to " give " and " save " and 
" serve " stares one in the face on every side. Lessons 
of economy and of generosity are being taught on a 
nation-wide scale, indeed, on a world-wide scale. Now 
that God is speaking by the mouths of cannon and in 
the din of battle, 

** Is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat," 

a fresh study of the subject of stewardship is pecu- 
liarly opportune for those who would know and do 
the will of God in relation to *' things," especially as 
represented by money. 

This series of studies aims to meet the growing de- 
mand for a treatment of the problems of personal 
economics from a standpoint somewhat different from 
that of most economists. It differs in that it begins 
further back, recognizing that in the production and 
distribution of property — be it money or whatever 
form of material value — God in a very real and prac- 
tical sense is the Chief Partner and is to be reckoned 
with, together with the Individual and Society. 

ix 



X FOREWORD 

Important as it is to understand the principles which 
regulate the mutual relationships of the Individual and 
Society, it is no less essential to master the funda- 
mental relations between the Individual and God, in- 
volved as these are in man's possession and use of 
God's property. 

Moreover, in the whole process, from the acquiring 
of property or its equivalent in money to the final 
accounting, the main consideration is given in this 
course to the reflex effect upon character. It is this 
vital element in the subject which invests it with such 
solemn, such stupendous importance. Money, most 
common of temporal things, involves uncommon and 
eternal consequences. 

No wonder, then, that God has given stewardship 
so important a place in the training of the human race. 
It is one of the divine kindergarten methods of de- 
veloping human life. The grace of giving is God*s 
antidote for human selfishness. It has three distinct 
angles of relation in which to be viewed: upward, 
in relation to God; inward, in relation to the Individ- 
ual; outward, in relation to Society. The field which 
lies within the outward angle, having to do with the 
Individual's relation to the community, has been well 
covered by those who specialize in political economy 
and in social service. We concern ourselves now more 
particularly with the other aspects, comparatively 
neglected as yet, that have to do with the relation 
which a man's things have to God and to man's own 
self-expression. 



FOREWORD xi 

In assembling the material here presented for this 
text-book credit may not always have been given. 
Sometimes, indeed, it has seemed difficult to make sure 
to whom it belongs; for in the growing mass of ma- 
terial on the subject it is not uncommon to find identity 
of ideas and even of expression. Gratefully acknowl- 
edging obligation to those who have worked in this 
field, the author has freely exercised his right to differ 
with them, while gladly according the same right to 
others. 

If these studies serve to stimulate independent 
thought and free discussion and then lead to a practical 
application of the principles of stewardship on the part 
of individuals and churches, they will have achieved 
their purpose. 

[// it is desired to abridge the course, combine 
Chapter III with IV, and V with VI, making six ses- 
sions instead of eight. 1 

David McConaughy. 

New York, 
August 15, 1918. 



STEWARDSHIP 
"If God is your partner, make your plans large." 



Guard that which is committed unto thee (i Tim. 6.20). 

Having food and covering we shall be therewith content 
(i Tim. 6.8). 

Godliness with contentment is great gain (i Tim. 6.6), 

I have a stewardship entrusted to me (i. Cor. 9. 17). 

I was made a minister, according to the stewardship of God 
which was given me (Col. 1.25, margin). 

It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful (i 
Cor. 4.2). 

Let a man so account of us, as of . . . stewards of the mys- 
teries of God (i Cor. 4. i). 

According as each hath received a gift, ministering it among 
yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God 
(i Pet. 4. 10). 



STEWARDSHIP 

All Life a Stewardship. All life is a stewardship. 
Vital energy in whatever form — whether physical or 
mental, moral or spiritual — is a trust from God. The 
earth, likewise, with its immeasurable store of material 
— its air and water and soil, its mineral wealth, its 
plant and animal life — is put at man's disposal. He 
is to subdue it (Gen. i. 28) and to utilize it to the 
utmost; but with the perpetual proviso that he is to 
use it always for Another, in accordance with his will 
as revealed in his Word and under his constant direc- 
tion. Time, too, enters into the account. To say that 
" Time is money " is but a crude way of suggesting 
that life, with all its vast and varied content, of which 
money can represent but a minor part, is measured in 
terms of time. For the whole of this sacred trust, 
man must sooner or later give a strict accounting. The 
day for striking the balance may be long delayed, but 
God must eventually be treated as the preferred cred- 
itor; and every man must sooner or later render a 
strict account of his stewardship (Luke 16. 2). 

Stewardship and Partnership. It is sometimes 
urged that stewardship is not the true conception ; that 
the real relation between God and man in dealing with 



4 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

things is one of partnership rather than of steward- 
ship. Such a distinction, however, conveys only a part 
of the truth. The fact is, that in this case the steward 
is made a partner; and his very partnership involves 
also a stewardship, while it altogether excludes the 
possibility of absolute ownership. This is true be- 
cause the Chief Partner, being for the time absent in 
person, has committed his own interest to the middle 
partner — the individual — making him his steward in 
the concern. Now the party of the second part can- 
not carry out the will of the party of the first part 
without caring, likewise, for the interests of the party 
of the third part, namely, the community. As our 
Lord uses the term "steward," {oikonomos, from 
which Greek word comes the English "economist"), 
it glows with the warmth of the Orient, which we 
of the West are in danger of chilling as we touch it 
with our materialized thought. Stewardship accord- 
ing to the New Testament conception is not a menial 
position of servility but a confidential relation of trust. 
To be a steward of the interests of the Chief Partner 
in his absence is high enough honor. 

Once I visited the steward of a prime minister of 
the great Moslem state of Haidarabad, in India. The 
prime minister had died. The steward was in sole 
possession of his palace. He alone knew where the 
treasure was hidden. He only had the key to the 
harem. He was the guardian of the young prince. 
For was he not the trusted steward ? And are we not 
more — partners, as well? Yes, but stewards still. 



STEWARDSHIP 5 

" It is enough for the servant that he be as his lord '^ 
(Matt. lo. 25). 

But in the lavishness of his love our Father, having 
made us " the sons of God," has offered us the privi- 
lege of partnership. Having created us in his own 
image (Gen. i. 26), he made us partners (koinonoi) — 
'' partakers of the divine nature " (2 Pet. i. 4). When 
he thus dowered man, he left him free to exercise the 
regal right of choice. He could be, not a steward 
only, as every man must be, but a partner as well, if 
he would. Oh, the tragedy of it that any should come 
short of that priceless privilege ! 

My grandfather, when a young man making de- 
posits daily in the bank in Baltimore of which Jared 
Hopkins was then the president, was one day called 
into the counting-room and offered partnership with 
the bank president's nephew, Johns Hopkins, in a 
business about to be established. ** James," said Jared 
Hopkins, " if thee wants for money, thee can draw 
on me." But the lad did not venture to seize the 
opportunity and remained poor to the end of his days,, 
while Johns Hopkins went on to become the merchant 
prince and philanthropist. 

Ours is the opportunity unspeakable of partnership 
with God. " Truly our partnership (koinonia) is with 
the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ " ( i John 
I. 3). Now, for a trust such as this partnership in- 
volves men must be trained. And stewardship is God's 
school for preparing men for partnership with him- 
self. Things are the tools by which he tests both 



6 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

skill in acquiring and using them, and also honesty 
in accounting for them. In this process is determined 
the product — whether or not men become like God. 

Money a Potential Factor. Among the means em- 
ployed in the lifelong process of training man through 
the medium of things, money is perhaps the most 
potent. It fills so important a place in human affairs, 
it is capable of representing the value of so much that 
goes to make up the sum total of life, that it comes to 
possess extraordinary power for weal or woe. Hence, 
" the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil " 
(i Tim. 6. lo). Yet, rightly used, it may be an in- 
strument of incalculable good, and most of all in 
molding the man who handles it. How necessary, 
then, to understand its nature and the principles which 
regulate it from first to last. 

A Medium of Exchange. Money is primarily a 
medium of exchange. It has served the purpose of a 
token of value between man and man from earliest 
times. Even before laws were formulated m.oney was 
in circulation. Its form has varied greatly. One of 
the earliest forms employed was that of cattle and 
sheep, among pastoral people of old, as is evidenced 
by the passing down of words such as the Latin 
'' pecus," meaning cattle, preserved as a fossil re- 
mains in the English word " pecuniary." It recalls 
that memorable real estate transaction of a far dis- 
tant day, when the well of Beer-sheba changed hands, 
and Abraham gave his friend Abimelech this receipt, 
" These seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, 



STEWARDSHIP 7 

that it may be a witness unto me, that I have digged 
this well " (Gen. 21. 30). Even to this day the Zulus 
of South Africa pay their debts and reckon their 
wealth in cattle, as in Homer's day the armor of 
Glaucus was valued at one hundred head of cattle. 
In Colonial days the Indians of North America em- 
ployed wampum and beaver skins as currency. Small 
shells known as " cowries " still serve the same pur- 
pose in India and West Africa, likewise salt in Abys- 
sinia, and cubes of pressed tea in Chinese Tartary. At 
length the precious metals, gold and silver, were 
adopted as the standards of value among most people. 
The word " money " is derived from the French 
monier, meaning to advise or warn; this was one of 
the titles given to the goddess Juno — Moneta — in 
whose temple money was first coined in metal form. 

A Measure of Value. Money is a measure of 
value; it serves to measure things. The elements 
which enter to give value to things are, in the main: 
the raw material; the life which is expended in physi- 
cal energy, thought, judgment; the skill required to 
fashion the material into shape for use; the time it 
takes to make and put the thing where it may be used ; 
the demand which goes to determine their quantity 
and quality and hence the price. All these are ele- 
ments in determining the value, and when these ele- 
ments have come into combination and produced the 
thing, the price-mark must be put upon it. Money, 
then, becomes the measure of the thing. 

Money Measures Men. Money not only measures 



8 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

the things exchanged but in a very real sense it affords 
a measure, likewise, of those who exchange them. 
Money measures a man. It is the measure of his time, 
and he is paid by the hour or the day or the week. It 
is the measure of his skill or talent, and the amount 
he receives depends upon the kind of work he does 
within the time spent on it. The counter used to con- 
vey the output is money. 

" Money Makes the Man." Money, moreover, 
does more than measure a man; it helps to make him. 
Money makes the man while the man is making the 
money. It has been said that " acquisition makes the 
money ; distribution makes the man. Distribution with- 
out acquisition dissipates the money; acquisition with- 
out distribution dissipates the man." The fact is, that 
not only in the making of money, but quite as much 
in the spending of it, and perhaps most of all in the 
giving of it, money reacts upon the man. Money and 
the things which it represents have the magical faculty 
of turning, as it were, upon the one who handles them, 
according to the way they are handled. When men 
work with them, they are tools; when played with, 
they are toys. Those who have handled them, be- 
cause of having had them, are never afterward the 
same. The way the man has used the thing has left 
its mark upon the man. He may have been utterly 
unaware of the process, but it surely goes steadily on 
all the time. While the watchmaker is making the 
watch, the very making of the watch is making the 
watchmaker the skilled artisan he is becoming. The 



STEWARDSHIP 9 

watchmaker may be making the spring and the face 
and the hands and all the marvelously adjusted 
mechanism, but at the same time the watch is develop- 
ing the watchmaker's skill and patience, his judgment 
and delicacy of touch. 

" Work," as Henry Drummond said on the death of 
his friend John Ewing, of Melbourne, " is given man, 
not only, nor so much, perhaps, because the world 
needs it, but because the workmen need it. Men make 
work, but work makes men. An office is not merely 
a place for making money; it is a place for making 
men. A workshop is not a place for making machinery 
only; it is a place for making souls, for filling in the 
working virtues of one's life; for turning out honest, 
modest, and good-natured men." 

The character-molding power of money was recog- 
nized by Paul when he came to fill in the detail of his 
pen portraits (i Tim. 3. 1-13) of the leaders required 
for the church of God. The " bishop " or superin- 
tendent, in order to be " without reproach," must, 
among other fundamental requirements, meet this con- 
dition, that he be " no lover of money." It is de- 
manded of the deacon, too, that he be " not greedy of 
filthy lucre." This latter phrase was not peculiar to 
Paul, but evidently reflects the common estimation in 
which Christians held money in the first century. For 
Peter, exhorting his fellow elders, warned them to 
exercise their oversight of the flocic of God not " for 
filthy lucre, but of a ready mind " (i Pet. 5. 2). 

But, if the material benefits of the gospel be allowed 



lo MONEY THE ACID TEST 

to satisfy and dominate those who possess them, then 
money may become Hke that cruel mechanism, '^ The 
Iron Maid," which in the days of the Inquisition was 
used slowly to crush the breath out of the victim held 
in its inexorable grasp. If money be not kept in the 
place of servant, it may become a tyrannous master. 

I was told by a member of a firm of wholesale 
grocers, in a city in the West, that one day one of 
his partners sent for him to come to his bedside. 
The other man was nearing the Great Divide, and in 
the white light of the eternal world things were loom- 
ing up before him in their true perspective. Taking 
his partner's hand he said earnestly : " I want you to 
see to an inscription for my tombstone. You know 
I never married, for I had no time to spare from 
business to spend with a family; but I made money. 
I never joined a social or athletic club, for I was too 
busy making money. Now, when I am gone, have 
this inscription cut: 

" Born, June 7, 1859, 
A human; 

Died, , 191 — , 

A wholesale grocer." 

Money Appraises Men. Not uncommonly, when 
a man has gone, the question is asked, " What was he 
worth ? " The answer is usually given in terms of 
dollars. False standard though that is for measuring 
the true value of life, even so it is true that the gospel 
does appreciably affect and even actually determine 



STEWARDSHIP il 

the very market value of a man. In pagan lands 
man-power is cheapest; it is in Christian countries 
that human life is counted most valuable and com- 
mands most in the industrial market. In India I have 
known a girl to be sold for the equivalent of one dol- 
lar. In America a boy of fifteen is valued commer- 
cially at $5,000; a full-grown man at $15,000 to 
$20,000. 

Money Reveals Men. Money talks; it expresses 
what its possessors actually are. The ordinary speech 
of men betrays their crass materialism. As you travel 
in a railway train keep your ears open and you can 
soon catch a vocabulary in which the words most 
commonly recurring are these: "dollars," "shares," 
" acres," " crops," " house," " automobile," and the 
like. With metallic click these words ring from the 
tongue and jar upon the ears like cash-registers, 
recording the thought, the true tendencies, of your 
fellow travelers, as they make the journey of life 
from the station of birth onward to the final terminal. 
Yes, money talks, and while it is true that it is not 
on speaking terms with every one, and to many it 
may only say " good-by," yet it speaks a various 
language which reveals the true inwardness of men. 

In a group of American men of big business one 
was telling one day how he got rid of those who 
came asking him to contribute to charitable objects. 
He wound up by saying, " I don't allow any of my 
time to be wasted on these sympathy appeals. I send 
the beggars about their business." 



12 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

Another of the group, after a pause, said very de- 
liberately, " Well, I hope my heart will never become 
so hardened in the process of money-making, that it 
will have no sympathy left to respond to appeals for 
help." 

It was not long before the former was occupying a 
cell in a federal prison, while the latter was at the 
head of a Christian movement to whose unprecedented 
appeal for funds the whole of the American people 
made a response far beyond even the huge demand. 

Money May Be Part of Myself. Whatever its 
form, money comes to represent the stored-up power 
of men. It is coined personality. " My money is my- 
self," says Dr. A. F. Schauffler, " I am a laboring 
man, we will say, and can handle a pickax, and I 
hire myself out for a week at $2 a day. xA.t the close 
of the week, I get $12 and put it in my pocket. What 
is that $12? It is a week's worth of my muscle put 
into greenbacks and pocketed; that is, I have a week's 
worth of myself in my pocket. Or, I am a clerk, and 
I hire myself out, being an intelligent and capable 
clerk, at $20 a week. Saturday comes, and I get my 
pay, and when I put that in my pocket, I pocket a 
week's worth of myself as a clerk. Or, I am a mer- 
chant, and I have large affairs; I have the handling 
of many clerks and require a higher brain power than 
that of the ordinary man. At the end of the week, 
I strike my balance-sheet and find that I am to the 
good $1,000. That is a week's worth of the mer- 
chant, a higher grade of intelligence. But my name 



STEWARDSHIP 13 

is Edison, and I toil with a brain of extraordinary 
power; and I complete an invention and at the end 
of the week I sell it for $50,000 and pocket the check. 
That is a week's worth of the highest inventive brain 
that there is. But it is all the same, anyway. The 
muscle man, the mind man, the genius, when he gets 
his money, is really getting the result of his own labor 
in the shape of cash. 

" Now the moment you understand this, you begin 
to understand that money in your pocket is not merely 
silver and gold, but it is something human, something 
that is instinct with power, because it represents power 
expended. If you are not earning any money of your 
own, and your father is supporting you, then yoii are 
carrying that much of your father around in your 
pocket. Money is like electricity; it is stored power, 
and it is only a question as to where that power is to 
be loosed." ^ 

Money but a Part of Stewardship. Potential a 
factor as money is in human affairs, no man, however, 
can possibly cover the whole of his stewardship in the 
columns of his cash-book or his ledger. Much of one's 
stewardship has to do with the common duties within 
the family circle, the intimate associations of friend- 
ship, the service rendered to society, and patriotic 
loyalties to the state. And, even as all elements enter 
into the deposit entrusted to the Christian for 
his use, so also the administration of his steward- 
ship will be through all channels (i Cor. 4. i)— 

* A. F. Schauffler, Money, Its Nature and Power. 



14 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

not by giving of money only, but also of serv- 
ice and influence and prayer and the witness he 
bears to the gospel of the grace of God. This part of 
life's output should far overbalance that which can be 
reduced to dollars and cents. Of this latter fraction, 
the part of one's belongings and time and self which 
can be converted into cash, the whole of it comes 
within the scope of one's stewardship. For conve- 
nience it may be classified in compartments labeled 
" living " and " saving " and " giving," but in the last 
analysis it is an indivisible trust. Thus regarded and 
treated, every bit of a man's money comes to bear 
the image and superscription of Christ. *' Caesar " 
ceases to have claim upon any of it. When earned 
and used for the Almighty, what once was only 
" filthy lucre " becomes verily '* the almighty dollar." 

Typical Stewards. Among the *' many who min- 
istered unto him of their substance " (Luke 8. 3) w-hen 
our Lord was on earth, was Joana the wife of King 
Herod's steward. Of that couple, the wife had the 
goodlier stewardship. Better far to be a steward of 
the King of kings than of Herod the king of Judah. 
What a royal order is that of God's stewards ! 

Samuel Inslee, a New York business man of a gen- 
eration ago, active in church extension and Sunday- 
school work, was a generous giver. He furnished 
practically all the funds required for a church build- 
ing in the Bronx and helped in a hundred ways to pro- 
mote the kingdom of God. One day in his office, when 
he had just drawn a check for a thousand dollars 



STEWARDSHIP 15 

which a friend of mine had asked of him for a certain 
good cause, Mr. Inslee was asked how he had learned 
to give away money so easily. His reply was this : 

" On Hudson Street near Canal forty years ago 
there used to be a little notion store where I began 
my business career. My salary was four dollars a 
week. A portion of that four dollars I set aside for 
the Lord. It was the first money I had earned. Of 
every four dollars that I have received in all the suc- 
ceeding years, an increasing proportion has been set 
aside unto the Lord. I have no difficulty in giving 
away money, for I count myself one of the Lord's 
stewards." 

William E. Dodge, on meeting one of the secre- 
taries of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, 
a few days after sending a very liberal contribution 
to help in making up the deficit, said : " I cannot tell 
you how great a pleasure it was for me to receive 
your note and to help liquidate the deficit of the 
board." The secret of this rather rare feeling came 
out when Mr. Dodge, attending a meeting in the in- 
terest of systematic beneficence not long afterward, 
said in a few well-chosen words that he had learned 
long ago to regard himself as a trustee, a steward of 
the Lord; and since he had come to this view there 
had never been any difficulty in giving away his money, 
save only to ascertain carefully whether the object for 
which it was asked was worthy. Alluding to a refer- 
ence which had been made to tithing in the same meet- 
ing, he said that it was all right for a beginning, but 



i6 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

that as a man's wealth increased his gifts ought to 
increase in a proportionate ratio. Herein lay the 
secret of his unfailing generosity. 

The will of John Stewart Kennedy affords a key 
to the character of the man. In the introduction to it 
he acknowledges his chief obligation to God for '^ hav- 
ing been greatly prospered," and then goes on to say 
that as an expression of his sympathy with " the re- 
ligious, educational, and philanthropic interests of the 
country " he gives and bequeaths amounts aggregating 
thirty million dollars, half of his entire estate. Among 
his benefactions were included all phases of human 
need and suffering. They literally took in the world; 
but first and foremost in the list he put religion, which 
was the deep substratum of his life. He had not 
waited until the end to part with his possessions; all 
through the years he had been giving generously to 
others. Dr. Washburn, a former president of Robert 
College, Constantinople, which was one of Mr. Ken- 
nedy's keenest interests, once asked him how much 
money he had given during a certain year to help 
families whom he thought needed his assistance. His 
reply was, '' Well, I have given this year in a quiet 
way not known outside my own family about 
$40,000." In an account-book containing his early 
benefactions, was found written at the head of a 
page, " Behold, the tenth of all I give unto thee." 
Mrs. Kennedy gave the key to the man's character 
when she told a friend that every morning it was Mr. 
Kennedy's habit to go off by himself for fifteen or 



STEWARDSHIP 17 

twenty minutes and with his Bible on his knees hold 
fellowship with his Master. The secret of his life was 
fellowship with Jesus Christ. 

In connection with the second American Red Cross 
drive one of the captains in New York City called 
special attention to a subscription of one dollar which 
he had obtained from a wealthy woman on the West 
Side after a half hour's interview. He asked permis- 
sion to keep it as a souvenir, and he substituted forth- 
with out of his own pocket a gift of $5,000. The 
incident takes on an added interest in the light of the 
story of how William Colgate, the grandfather of that 
*' captain," himself started out upon the pathway of 
stewardship. This is the story as given by Dr. A. J. 
Gordon : 

Many years ago a lad of sixteen left home to seek his for- 
tune. All his worldly possessions were tied up in a bundle 
which he carried in his hand. As he trudged along he met 
an old neighbor, the captain of a canal-boat, and the following 
conversation took place, which changed the whole current of 
the boy's life: 

"Well, William, where are you going?" 

" I don't know," he answered. " Father is too poor to keep 
me at home any longer, and says I must now make a living 
for myself." 

" There's no trouble about that," said the captain. " Be sure 
you start right, and you'll get along finely." 

William told his friend that the only trade he knew any- 
thing about was soap and candle-making, at, which he had helped 
his father while at home. 

" Well," said the old man, " let me pray with you once more 
and give you a little advice, and then I will let you go." 

They both kneeled down upon the tow-path; the dear old 
man prayed earnestly for William and then gave him this 



i8 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

advice, " Some one will soon be the leading soap-maker in 
New York. It can be you as well as any one. I hope it may. 
Be a good man; give your heart to Christ; give the Lord all 
that belongs to him of every dollar you earn; make an honest 
soap; give a full pound, and I am certain you will yet be a 
prosperous and rich man." 

When the boy arrived in the city, he found it hard to get 
work. Lonesome and far from home he remembered his 
mother's words and the last words of the canal-boat captain. 
He was then led to " seek first the kingdom of God and his 
righteousness," and united with the church. He remembered 
his promise to the old captain, and the first dollar he earned 
brought up the question of the Lord's part. In the Bible he 
found that the Jews were commanded to give one tenth; so 
he said, "If the Lord will take one tenth, I will give that." 
And so he did; and ten cents of every dollar was sacred to 
the Lord. Having regular employment, he soon became a 
partner; and after a few years his partner died, and William 
became the sole owner of the business. He now resolved to 
keep his promise to the old captain ; he made an honest soap, 
gave a full pound, and instructed his bookkeeper to open an 
account with the Lord, carrying one tenth of his income to 
that account. He prospered; his business grew; his family was 
blessed; his soap sold and he grew rich faster than he had 
ever hoped. He then gave the Lord two tenths, and pros- 
pered more than ever; then he gave three tenths, then four 
tenths, then five tenths. He educated his family, settled all his 
plans for life, and thereafter gave the whole of his income to 
the Lord. 

This order of nobility — the Knights of the Great 
Heart and Open Hand — is not confined to the big 
givers. It was the poor in this world's goods but rich 
in love and faith that our Lord singled out to receive 
the golden decorations of his commendations. 

A missionary on the foreign field, when asked for 
instances of sacrificial giving, replied that as fine a 



STEWARDSHIP 19 

case as he knew had come to his notice in Cleveland, 
Ohio, when at home on his last furlough. A black- 
smith, earning $25 a week, plus overtime wages, sup- 
porting a family, and contributing generously to his 
own church and local claims, maintained his own sub- 
stitute missionary in Africa, at an expense of $350 a 
year. 

A maiden lady, living in a little town in Illinois, 
earning her own living by baking pies, cakes, and 
bread, and peddling them from house to house, having 
known me as a boy took a special interest in my work 
when I went out to India as the first Secretary of the 
Young Men's Christian Association sent to a non- 
Christian land. One day a letter bearing the post- 
mark of her town came to the office of the Inter- 
national Committee of the Young Men's Christian 
Association with a check for $25, to be used as a nest- 
egg for a building for the Association which had re- 
cently been started at Madras. Supposing that the 
giver might be able to repeat the gift, application was 
made later for a renewal of it. Then the fact came 
out that it had taken years for this poor woman to 
gather together the amount which she had sent. Sev- 
eral years afterward she repeated the gift. It was at 
first refused, until it was found that her heart was set 
on having it used as she had intended. It was her 
custom to rise from bed at midnight to set her sponge 
and after her work was done she was accustomed to 
pray for the work that was being done for the young 
men of India away on the other side of the world. 



20 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

She had learned that the breadth of Christian giving 
is nothing short of ^' the world," and as her heart went 
out with her gift to the uttermost parts of the earth, 
her own life was broadened far beyond the narrow 
confines of the little local community in which she 
lived. Like her Lord, she had learned to think in 
terms of the far horizon. When her example was 
afterward quoted in a meeting in London, a wealthy 
woman said, " If Margaret Moses, who lives by baking 
and peddling bread, can do what she has done, I can 
give £250 a year for another Association Secretary in 
India " ; and she did. 

From the New York City Almshouse on Black- 
well's Island, $26.83 was sent to the Armenia-Syria 
Relief Fund, as a free-will offering of helpless and 
infirm people from sixty to one hundred years of age. 
The chaplain had told them of the sufferings of Ar- 
menia and had given out envelops in which to enclose 
requests for prayer. To his surprise one envelop and 
another contained money — " the first time," the chap- 
lain writes, " that an offering has been made at this 
church. Men have gone without their tobacco and 
newspapers ; they have free shaves, which are not very 
inviting here, and have given the nickel that visitors 
had given them for a shave. One woman, a paralytic 
with only one arm, washed for the women in the ward 
at a cent a wash and made twenty-five cents. Another, 
a feeble-minded cripple, voiceless and with possibly 
fifty words of vocabulary, understood the story of 
Armenian suffering and, touched by it, did errands, 



STEWARDSHIP 21 

crippled as she is, and made beds until by Friday she 
had earned thirty-nine cents; but fifty cents was her 
goal and she kept at it until it was reached. Another 
gave two postage-stamps, all he had in the world, but 
it came from a big heart. A man brought one dollar 
and said, ''This is all I have; it strands me for the 
rest of the month, but I am glad to stand for it, and 
would give more if I had it." An invalid man who 
for seventeen years had been flat on his back and who 
has not the use of a single limb, gave cheerfully his 
mite of twenty-five cents, which meant that he had 
to forego something that meant much to his ill-fated 
existence." 

They specially requested that these gifts from help- 
less old age should be used for the benefit of helpless 
babies. 

Portrait of a Steward. Among the characters 
which William Law has preserved in his Serious Call, 
Miranda affords a fine illustration of the true steward 
after the pattern of Christ : 

"As soon as she was mistress of her time and fortune, it 
was her first thought how she might best fulfil everything that 
God required of her in the use of them, and how she might 
make the best and happiest use of this short life. She does 
not divide her duty between God, her neighbor, and herself; 
but she considers all as due to God, and so does everything in 
his name and for his sake. This makes her consider her for- 
tune as the gift of God, that is to be used as everything is 
that belongs to God, for the wise and reasonable ends of a 
Christian and holy life. Her fortune, therefore, is divided be- 
twixt herself and several other poor people, and she has only 
her part of relief from it. She thinks it the same folly to 



22 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

indulge herself in needless vain expenses, as to give to other 
people to spend in the same way. Therefore, she will not give 
a poor man money to go to see a puppet-show, neither will 
she allow herself any money to spend in the same manner, 
thinking it very proper to be as wise herself as she expects 
poor men should be. * For is it folly and a crime in a poor 
man,' says Miranda, ' to waste what is given him in foolish 
trifles, whilst he wants meat, drink, and clothes? And is it less 
folly or less crime in me to spend in silly diversions, that which 
might be so much better spent in imitation of the divine good- 
ness, in works of kindness and charity toward my fellow crea- 
tures and fellow Christians? If a poor man's own necessities 
are a reason why he should not waste any of his money idly, 
surely the necessities of the poor, the excellency of charity, 
which is received as done to Christ himself, is a much greater 
reason why no one should ever waste any of his money. For, 
if he does so, he does not only do like the poor man — wasting 
only that which he wants himself — but he wastes that which is 
wanted for the most noble use and which Christ himself is ready 
to receive at his hands. And, if we are angry at a poor man 
and look upon him as a wretch when he throws away that which 
should buy his own bread, how must it appear in the sight of God 
if we make a wanton idle use of that which should buy bread 
and clothes for the hungry and naked brethren who are as 
near and dear to God as we are, and fellow heirs at the same 
state of future glory?' 

" This is the spirit of Miranda, and thus she uses the gifts of 
God ; she is only one of a certain number of poor people that 
are relieved out of her fortune, and she only differs from them 
in the blessedness of giving. Excepting her victuals she never 
spent ten pounds a year upon herself. If you were to see her, 
you would wonder what poor body it was that was so sur- 
prisingly neat and clean. She has but one rule that she observes 
in her dress, to be always clean, and in the cheapest things. 
Everything about her resembles the purity of her soul, and she 
is always clean without, because she is always pure within." 

God's Proprietary Interests. In his story of the 
Unrighteous Steward (Luke i6) our Lord has finely 



STEWARDSHIP 123 

pictured in concrete terms God's proprietary rights in 
the things of men. On the dark background of the 
faithless steward's bankruptcy proceedings is suddenly 
flashed forth this search-light question, " If you are 
not faithful in that which is another's, who will give 
you that which is your own?" Only he whose 
thoughts are not as our thoughts would ever have put 
it that way. Would we not rather have said, ** If you 
have not proved faithful in handling your own affairs, 
who will trust you with things that belong to others? " 
But nothing could be further from Jesus' thinking. 
He knew very well that things cannot in any true sense 
be considered ours unless they have first been con- 
verted and become part and parcel of ourselves. I 
have a dollar to-day, but in a little while it will have 
passed through the hands of many others. It passed 
from my hands to that of the bookseller in exchange 
for a volume which lies on my desk; but the book is 
not mine until I have read it, absorbed it through my 
brain, changed it from material to immaterial form. 
Only when it has become part and parcel of me per- 
sonally can it possibly be regarded as my own. 

Stewardship a Test of Character. Of riches it is 
said that " there is too often a burden of care in get- 
ting them, a burden of anxiety in keeping them, a bur- 
den of temptation in using them, a burden of guilt in 
abusing them, a burden of sorrow in losing them, a 
burden of account at last to be given for possessing 
and either improving or misimproving them." Those 
who treat riches as a trust will find that the exercise 



24 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

of Christian stewardship at each successive stage af- 
fords a safeguard against the ruinous effects of exces- 
sive accumulation: 

Spending protects from miserliness; saving, from 
wastefulness; giving, from selfishness; proportioning, 
from one-sidedness; accounting, from dishonesty; in- 
fluencing others, from f ruitlessness. 

Thus, acquiring makes a man prosperous ; spending 
makes him well furnished; saving makes him thrifty; 
giving makes him generous; proportioning makes him 
discriminate; accounting makes him accurate; influenc- 
ing others makes him useful. 

As our study of Stewardship proceeds, we shall 
see more and more clearly that, even though it may 
be quite unconsciously, money molds men — in the 
process of getting it, of saving it, of using it, of giving 
it, of accounting for it. According as it is handled it 
proves a blessing or a curse to its possessor; either the 
man becomes master of his money, or the money be- 
comes master of the man. Turning his money into 
food, he puts it in his stomach and it becomes either 
meat or poison ; turning it into clothes, he puts it on his 
back, and it may make him genteel or a dandy; turn- 
ing it into books, he puts it in his head, and it may 
make him a boastful infidel or a humble disciple. It 
has more magical qualities than Aladdin's lamp. The 
outcome turns upon the man's attitude toward the 
other partners — God and society. According as he is 
a faithful steward or not, he becomes : 



STEWARDSHIP 25 

In acquiring, either a benefactor or an exactor; 
In spending, a provider or a prodigal; 
In saving, a conserver or a miser; 
In giving, a philanthropist or a patronizer; 
In proportioning, a partner or a legalist; 
In accounting, a creditor or a debtor ; 
In influencing others, a stepping-stone or a stum- 
bling-block. 

Is it then to be wondered at, in view of the pos- 
sibilities involved, that Jesus has so much to say as to 
man's attitude toward money? Of his thirty-eight 
parables, sixteen relate to this theme. Throughout 
the four records of the gospel, it is reckoned, one in 
every six verses deals with this same subject. Thus 
our Lord takes money, the thing that, essential though 
it is to our common life, sometimes seems so sordid, 
and he makes it a touchstone to test the lives of men 
and an instrument for molding them into likeness to 
himself. 

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION 

I. Stewardship 

Aim : To show that stewardship is a divine system of trans- 
forming human character. 

Questions Suggested by the Chapter 

What is included within the scope of Christian stewardship? 

How may men be stewards and yet partners? 

What makes money so large an element in stewardship? 

What purposes does it serve? 

How does it measure men as well as things? 

How does it affect character? 



26 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

How does it reveal it? 

What evidence of this is found in the Scriptures? 

What is the main point of Jesus' story of the Unjust Steward 
(in Luke i6) ? 

What was the effect upon myself of the first money I pos- 
sessed? 

Are my possessions so completely under my control as in no 
sense to have mastery over me? 

Problems from Life ^ 

I. Matthias W. Baldwin, founder of the Baldwin Locomotive 
Works, in Philadelphia, was a proportionate giver. The his- 
torian of the works says that often when the concern was 
sorely in need of money Mr, Baldwin would unhesitatingly give 
his notes for large sums to religious and charitable enterprises. 
These notes were always redeemed. During a time of financial 
stress some Philadelphia bankers were in favor of withholding 
financial aid from the Baldwin works on account of this well- 
known trait of Mr. Baldwin; but one of them took the ground 
that this was the very best reason why he should be given credit, 
and the desired aid was given. John H. Converse, who after- 
ward became president of the company, was, likewise, a syste- 
matic and proportionate giver. One year when the works 
earned no profit he gave $600,000 for religious and philan- 
thropic work. 

What attitude would you take, if yourself a bank director 
and called upon to act in such a case? What would you do 
about contributing, if you were in a business which for a time 
yielded no profit? 

II. A lad of fourteen, having noticed that some people grow 
broader as they grow older while others grow narrower, went 
to his pastor for an explanation. He was assured that he 
could have the secret, if he was willing to pay the price ; it 
was simply this, that those who honor the Lord with the first- 
fruits of all their increase are consequently enlarged every way 
according to God's promise. The lad, earning at that time four 
dollars a week and paying two dollars board to his widowed 

^ Draw upKjn your own experience and observation for instances which 
suggest further points for discussion, in the study of each chapter. 



STEWARDSHIP 27 

mother, determined to dedicate a tenth to the Lord. It was a 
severe test to put aside forty cents out of four dollars. But he 
did it, and after adhering to the policy for more than half a 
century, he rejoices in the privilege of having dispensed some 
$60,000. His benefactions helped to educate twenty-five young 
men for useful service in the ministry and other professions 
and in business, among the number a college president. In the 
case of one who was a cripple he expended $4,000, putting him 
on a footing of self-support. Most of the money which he 
has given to help individuals has come back in time and been 
reinvested in other lives. Each man he has helped has been 
enlisted to give proportionately. All the while he has identified 
himself personally with good works of all sorts. 

What would your answer have been to the lad's inquiry? 
What would you have done about giving, had you been in his 
circumstances at the outset? 

III. John D. Rockefeller, when but eight years of age and 
earning ten cents a day, commenced to put aside one tenth to 
give. In his Reminiscences he says that he counts it one of the 
greatest blessings of his life that he had been taught in his 
home to give regularly and proportionately out of his earnings 
from the first. His "Ledger A" shows a contribution to the 
Five Points Mission in New York. What he was taught, he 
has taught his children. 

What difference would it have made had John D. Rocke- 
feller not learned to give when he first began to get money? 

IV. "Do you know out of what I get my greatest satisfaction 
in life now?" said the engineer of a railway "flier." I get it 
out of being the Lord's treasurer. Before I was converted I 
used, the first thing, to take out of my pay envelop, enough 
to cover my booze bill. Now, as soon as I step off the pay- 
car, I put a fixed proportion of my wages in a separate pocket, 
to be given away. Then, when I get back into my cab, I feel 
a new sense of partnership — that of the Lord's treasurer instead 
of only a locomotive engineer," 

Putting yourself in the engineer's place, what difference does 
such a partnership arrangement as he adopted make in one's 
outlook on life? 



II 

ACQUIRING 

"The resources of God are promised only to those who 
undertake the program of God." 



In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread (Gen. 3. 19). 

Six days shalt thou labor (Ex. 20.9). 

If any will not work, neither let him eat (2 Thess. 3. 10). 

It is he (Jehovah thy God) that giveth thee power to get 
wealth (Deut. 8. 17). 

He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread (Prov. 
12. 11). 

He that gathereth by labor shall have increase (Prov. 13. 11). 

He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house (Prov. 
15. 27) 

In diligence not slothful, fervent in spirit (Rom. 12.17). 

Study to . . . work with your hands . . . that ye may have 
need of nothing (i Thess. 4. 11, 12). 

Let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, 
that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need (Eph. 
4.28). 



II 

ACQUIRING 

Possession Is Not Ownership. It is a common 
but pernicious fallacy to think that possession means 
ownership. One of the services which the world war 
has rendered is to sweep away this hoary heresy, that 
" possession is nine points of the law." By stress of 
unprecedented circumstances men are being awakened 
to realize that, in relation to society as headed up in 
the state, they are by no means absolute owners of 
what they may happen for the time being to have. 
Here, for example, is an officer of the India civil 
service who has retired on a modest pension of a 
thousand pounds sterling, or about $5,000, reckoning 
on it to spend the evening of his life in comfort. But 
new needs arise from the war and, being bound up in 
the same bundle of life with the rest of his country- 
men, he is called upon to turn over to the government 
no less than fifty per cent, of his sole dependence. 
Men of larger means are called upon for even a larger 
proportion of their income. They had supposed that 
they actually owned what they had; they are dis- 
covering their mistake. Incomes of over two million 
dollars in the United States pay a surtax of 63 per 

31 



32 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

cent. ; as for example, to take only a few of the largest, 
based on the income tax returns of the first year after 
the country entered the war : 

Income Tax 

John D. Rockefeller $60,000,000 $38,400,000 

H. C. Frick 11,250,000 7,160,000 

Andrew Carnegie 10,000,000 6,400,000 

George F. Baker 7,500,000 4,800,000 

William Rockefeller 7,500,000 4,800,000 

J. Ogden Armour 6,250,00) 4,000,000 

W. K. Vanderbilt 5,000,000 3,200,000 

Henry Ford. 5,000,000 3,200,000 

Edward H, R. Green 5,000,000 3,200,000 

Mrs. W. H. Harriman 4,000,000 2,560,000 

Vincent Astor 3,750,ooo 2,400,000 

Charles M. Schwab 3,500,000 2,240,000 

J. P. Morgan 3,500,000 2,240,000 

Mrs. Russell Sage 3,000,000 1,920,000 

Cyrus H. McCormick 3,000,000 1,920,000 

The first twenty-six on the list, aggregating one 
hundred and seventy million dollars of income, yield 
one hundred million dollars of taxes for the main- 
tenance of the federal government. The total received 
from the whole country from this source for the same 
year amounted to $3,000,000,000. 

The French nation, which with its mass of small 
" rentiers " has hitherto been hostile to all proposals 
for levying an income tax, has recently been brought 
to the same footing by the war. On a sliding scale 
similar to that of England and the United States, its 
tax started at 16 per cent, for the larger incomes, and 
it is sure to be increased. It is not improbable that 



ACQUIRING 33 

before long not only incomes but capital as well will 
be taxed by most governments, if not by all. Indeed, 
in an indirect form, that is already the case in some 
parts of the United States. 

God Holds the First Mortgage. If, then, society 
as represented by the state can legitimately make such 
demands as these and have them honored without 
question, where is God's claim to come in? For un- 
doubtedly *' the earth is the Lord's and the fulness 
thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein" 
(Psa. 24. i). Queen Victoria's good Prince Consort, 
Albert, had that text carved in large letters on the 
fagade of the Royal Exchange, in London, the nerve- 
center of the commercial world. It is said that one 
day a bibulous American tourist, with brain over- 
stimulated and consequently somewhat muddled, stand- 
ing on the steps of the Mansion House, the official 
residence of the Lord Mayor, misread the inscription 
thus, " The earth is the Lord Mayor's." Then he pro- 
ceeded to dispute the proposition in vigorous Yankee 
lingo, to the amusement of those who passed by. The 
fact is, however, that, whether Lord Mayor or ** just 
folks," many, while piously enough admitting in 
theory that " the earth is the Lord's," proceed im- 
piously to deny it in practise; giving God everything 
in general, they fail to give him anything in particu- 
lar. They are not unlike Louis XI, of France, who 
donated to the Virgin Mary the whole country of 
Boulogne but reserved the revenue therefrom for 
himself. 



34 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

That motto on the Royal Exchange might fitly be 
placed in the office of every registrar of deeds. How 
can man possibly acquire title to a single square foot 
of earth, seeing that God has never renounced his 
prior claim ? His is the right of eminent domain. The 
most that man can acquire is a ninety-nine years' lease- 
hold, with God's rights explicitly reserved; freehold, 
never. Abstracts of title-deeds in this country are 
usually traced back to government grants or purchase 
from the Indians or letters patent granted by one of 
the crowns of Europe; but to be really binding, they 
should reach back to the Creator. 

A title-deed to real estate, viewed from the stand- 
point of the upward angle — that is, in relation to God, 
— is a bit of grim though often unconscious humor, 
for, even though the mighty ones of the earth set them- 
selves and the state guarantees their " seats,'* " He 
that sitteth in the heavens will laugh; the Lord will 
have them in derision'' (Psa. 2.4). 

Viewed from another angle — the outward angle, 
which covers man's relation to society — of course the 
title-deed is valid enough and serves a useful purpose. 
But in the light of the eternal world distinctions of 
" ownership " look at best very much like the make- 
believe of children playing in the market-place. 

'' How," writes Dr. E. F. Poteat, " did I get that 
square inch of earth which I find in my possession ? If 
I am a barbarian, I probably got it by fighting for it. 
My sword is the sign of my ' ownership.' If I am 
a twentieth century gentleman, my title rests in the 



ACQUIRING 35 

consent of the community and in the determination 
of the state to support me in my rights to keep other 
people out of the use of my plot of ground. But, if 
I am a Christian, I am myself owned. God by crea- 
tion and by redemption owns me." 

" Behold, unto Jehovah thy God belongeth heaven 
and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is 
therein" (Deut. lo. 14). "And lest thou say in thy 
heart. My power and the might of my hand hath 
gotten me this wealth . . . thou shalt remember 
Jehovah thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power 
to get wealth " (Deut. 8. 17, 18). This is no mere 
pious sentiment, but the actual fact. 

Originally, of course, God, being the Creator, was 
sole owner of all. But he saw fit to take man into 
partnership. Conferring on him " dominion " over 
all the earth — over fish and fowl, cattle and creeping 
thing, in short, over every living thing (Gen. i. 26-31). 
Along with this right there was laid upon man a tre- 
mendous responsibility — that of administering the 
whole vast estate so as to make the property pro- 
ductive, to enhance the value of the investment, to 
*' multiply, and replenish the earth" (verse 28). 

Three Partners Give Value to Property. The 
value of any and all property is contributed by three 
partners — God and the individual and society. Each 
makes a distinctive investment in producing its value. 
God supplies life and the raw material. The individ- 
ual in whose possession it is, contributes his time, 
talent, and energy or their equivalent in money. So- 



36 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

ciety supplies the market — the demand — which is the 
final factor in determining the value. 

The Partnership Must Be Actual. Title to all 
property being thus vested in a triple partnership, it 
were downright dishonesty for any one of the part- 
ners to claim absolute ownership. Men must learn 
to hold their possessions for the common good. 
'' This farm," says Emerson, " belongs to Mr. Smith, 
and that to Mr. Brown; but the landscape is mine." 
But, before things will have become rightly adjusted, 
Mr. Smith and Mr. Brown will share more than the 
landscape with their less fortunate fellow citizens. 
That new House which is to be built after the war is 
over may not be exactly according to the specifica- 
tions which the British Labor Party has designed in 
its platform, with its four pillars — (i) the securing to 
every member of the community of all the requisites 
of healthy life and worthy citizenship; (2) the demo- 
cratic control of industry; (3) a revolution in national 
finance; (4) the use of the surplus wealth for the 
common good. It is certain, however, that we shall 
" have to restore to society a direct ownership of some 
things, but an eminent ownership of all things ma- 
terial to the production of wealth, securing * property 
for use ' to the individual and retaining ' property for 
power ' for the democratic state." ^ 

Cooperation Essential. For the individual to 
monopolize the property which comes into his posses- 
sion would be a wrong to society. For society to dis- 
* L. F. Hobhouse, Property, ch. I. 



ACQUIRING 37 

regard the individual's interest in it, were a usurpation 
and injustice. For either the individual or society to 
fail to make worthy acknowledgment of God's part 
in it all would be robbery and infidelity. Would any- 
thing short of the present world war have sufficed to 
startle men out of the self-complacency with which, 
inside the church as well as without, they had settled 
down to delusions on the whole question of property? 
At last a true conception of its place and purpose is 
beginning to prevail. 

The Bishop of Oxford, Charles Gore, in his intro- 
duction to that notable collection of papers published 
under the title Property: Its Duties and Rights, has 
admirably summed up the case: 

" The success of a civilization for us must be measured, not 
by the amount and character of its products or material wealth, 
nor by the degree of well-being which it renders possible for 
a privileged class, but by the degree in which it enables all its 
members to feel that they have the chance of making the best 
of themselves, to feel that an adequate measure of free self- 
realization is granted them. ... If the purpose of property 
come to be no longer * for use,' but ' for power,' it becomes a 
menace, resolving itself into the unmeasured control by the few 
rich, not of any amount of unconscious material but of other 
men whose opportunity to live and work and eat becomes sub- 
ject to their will. In our own civilization we find masses of 
men and women who cannot reasonably be described as having 
any adequate measure of property for use. They cannot go 
out into life with the security of free men, cannot within reason- 
able limits control their own destiny, cannot realize them- 
selves. They are ' hands ' for other men to use. Something 
has gone very wrong with our tenure of property; we need by 
peaceful means and, if it may be, by general consent to accom- 
plish such a redistribution of property as shall reduce the 



38 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

inordinate amount of ' property for power ' in the hands of 
the few and give to all men, as far as may be, in reasonable 
measure ' property for use.' . . . Are we, in entertaining such 
an ambition, violating any sacred right of property? . . . We 
can discern no absolute right of property. We may say that 
a man has a divine right to realize his being; and this involves 
a certain right of property. But this goes but a very little 
way. Moreover, from the first, man is a social animal. He 
realizes himself in communities. Property is made possible and 
secured by the community, which becomes in developed society 
the state. The state exists to enable its members to develop a 
worthy human life. A state must be judged, and should judge 
itself, by its tendency to generate in all its citizens a worthy 
type of life — to make them happy and progressive beings who 
feel that life is worth living. If at any stage it finds that the 
institution of property, as it exists, is fostering luxury and 
exaggerated power in a few and enslaving or hindering the 
many, there is nothing to prevent its rectifying what is amiss. 
The state is free to alter its laws and its methods so as to 
secure the better distribution of property. As it is only the 
state which enables a man to become rich, if wealth proves 
inimical to the general development, the possessors of wealth 
have no legitimate claim to urge against the state taking mea- 
sures to reduce the balance, provided that the end which the 
state has in view is the true end — the real welfare of all its 
citizens. 

'*. . . Individualism in property has overdone itself. It is 
working disastrous havoc. The cry for justice from the masses 
of men and women is a cry which is legitimate; and, if it is a 
legitimate cry, then most certainly it behooves us not to wait 
till its claim can be enforced, grudging every inch that is yielded 
unwillingly to ' labor ' under the pressure of compulsion, but 
rather as free men to face and gird ourselves willingly for re- 
form, even if it entail for us personal sacrifice. 

"What has religion to say to the institution of property? 
... A man cannot read the Law and the Prophets, from the 
point of view of one who would think rightly about private 
property, without seeing how, alike in the institution of the 
Law and the teaching of the Prophets, the intention is to recog- 



ACQUIRING 39 

nize it Indeed as having God's sanction, but to restrain it by a 
peremptory insistence on the right of God, the only absolute 
Owner, and the rights of our fellow men, especially the weaker 
and poorer members of the state. Much that we are accustomed 
to hear called legitimate insistence upon the rights of property 
the Old Testament would seem to call the robbery of God and 
the grinding of the faces of the poor. 

"Later, the teaching of Jesus Christ about the worth of 
each individual, the poorest and the weakest, expressed itself 
in the Christian idea of brotherhood and the institution of the 
church as a body in which, ' if one member suffer, all the mem- 
bers suffer with it.' This idea and institution carried with it a 
doctrine of property which echoed our Lord's strong disparage- 
ment of wealth, and was In theory and practise highly com- 
munal." 

Working Out the Proportions. What proportions 
each partner respectively contributes to the value of 
property it would be interesting to try to figure out, 
if only to arrive at a rough approximation. God, of 
course, puts in by far the largest share. For example, 
in an ordinary blast-furnace which requires 40,000 
cubic feet of air a minute, each cubic foot weighing 
.076 pounds, a ton and a half of air is used each 
minute, ninety tons an hour, 2,160 tons a day. The 
human proprietor is utterly powerless to furnish this 
essential element. Since no amount of man-power 
could possibly supply it, God must come into the part- 
nership or the business cannot continue for a single 
hour. Then, too, there is the raw material which God 
had stored away in the mountains and now puts in to 
produce the pig iron; and, besides all this, the life of 
all the workers is included in his investment. Now 
put alongside of this the capital and energy and brains 



40 ■ MONEY THE ACID TEST 

and time of the partner who calls the blast-furnace 
his, and also what the " hands " contribute to the out- 
put. Then work out this sum in proportion and see 
what the result shows. 

" The silk and wool which clothes us was patiently 
elaborated by worm or sheep, and is its cast-off gar- 
ment reconstructed to suit our requirement. The sim- 
ple prayer, ' Give us this day our daily bread,' requires 
for its physical fulfilment that our tables be supplied 
with productions from the mineral, vegetable, and 
animal kingdoms, gathered from every clime, and in 
the production or transportation of which have been 
utilized the operation of every law of life, every prin- 
ciple of chemistry and physics, every form of mechani- 
cal device, the stored energy of unnumbered ages, the 
constructive thought, experimentation, and coopera- 
tion of thousands of men, and the invested billions of 
dollars which make possible the maintenance of the 
material accessories of civilization. Whatever his 
accumulations, no man has originated a new force or 
created a new element." ^ 

Likewise, in the production of even the commonest 
article of daily use: 

" Back of the loaf is the snowy flour, 
And back of the flour the mill, 
And back of the mill are the wheat and the shower 
And the sun and the Father's will." 

Society's Investment. Society, likewise, has a 
large interest at stake in all property. When 
^ John F. Goucher, Principles of Stezvardship. 



ACQUIRING 41 

Manhattan Island was first transferred from the 
Indians to the shrewd Dutchmen who bought it, 
the consideration given amounted to only $28. Now 
it is valued at three and a half billion dollars. 
Does the difference represent the original price with 
compound interest to date ? What would be the value 
of the Interborough railroad stc^k, were it not for the 
throngs who dive daily, yes hourly day and night, like 
moles into holes in the ground and pour their constant 
stream of nickels into the Company's coffers? Each 
subway train may represent an investment of 
$400,000., but what would it be worth without the 
people who permit themselves to be packed in like 
cattle? 

The Individual's Part. How much then has the 
individual holder put into the property he holds ? His 
investment is in the form of vital energy, whether of 
muscle or of mind, likewise his time and the training 
and the skill that he possesses — either these or their 
equivalent measured in money. 

Dr. E. W. Poteat tells of a shrewd business ac- 
quaintance of his who had calculated his contribution 
to his own prosperity. He ran an electric plant, an 
ice plant, and a dairy, and he ran them successfully, 
yet he was never able to make it out that his personal 
contribution to the value of the property was more 
than five per cent. 

Two Ways of Acquiring. There are two principal 
ways of coming into possession of things — by favor 
of others or by efforts of our own. What comes by 



42 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

gift or inheritance is of far less value, because it lacks 
one dimension, that of the inward angle; it brings 
less of the character value which comes as the result 
of honest effort put forth in acquiring. It has more 
purchasing power in the market than transforming 
power in the man to whom it is given. Often, too, 
the money which comes easily, goes quickly. If, how- 
ever, what is inherited be regarded as a responsibility 
to be administered, rather than a relief from the neces- 
sity of labor, it may be the means of enlarging and 
enriching the one who inherits. 

One's First Money. The first lesson to be learned 
in relation to money and the things which it rep- 
resents is what it costs to get it. We arrive on this 
planet without wardrobe or food supplies or cash to 
obtain either. Having needs which soon assert them- 
selves we avail ourselves of our chief stock in trade, 
a pair of lusty lungs. Proceeding to employ them, we 
soon discover a satisfactory method of getting what 
we require. My own experience in that respect was 
not unlike that of many others. When the time came 
for me to rejoice in my first pockets I found an op- 
portunity to repeat the very same process which had 
worked so well at the outset. A wag of an uncle gave 
me my initial chance to get into the business of earn- 
ing my first money. Placing me on one side of a tall 
tree on my grandfather's grounds, he made the prop- 
osition that, if I would shout loud enough to make 
my voice go up over the topmost branch of that tall 
pine and come down to him on the other side, he would 



ACQUIRING 43 

pay me a quarter. Right lustily I used my lung power 
to its full capacity until the conditions were declared 
to have been fulfilled, and my first wage was deposited 
deep down in the pocket of which I was so proud. 
Perhaps it was not the most productive kind of labor, 
but in earning a return on the outlay it served its pur- 
pose well. 

Meum et Tuum. When once the problem of getting 
money is in a fair way to be solved, the distinction of 
" mine " and " thine " needs to be learned without 
delay. Under proper conditions it is acquired early 
in life. Let some street bully stop a tiny tot who is 
carrying a cent to Sunday-school and dispute posses- 
sion. The value in hand may be very little and the 
tenure ever so brief, but the small fist tightens and 
forth comes the defiant assertion, '' It's mine." Well 
were it that a no less clear conviction should be 
formed and persistently adhered to all through life 
as to the possessions of others. Let the distinction be 
broad enough in its application to include, not one's 
fellows only, but, over and above all, God. 

Property Involves Personality. Power to acquire 
develops the sense of personality; it opens the way to 
increased intelligence, industry, self-reliance, relia- 
bility, breadth of interest, and sympathy with others. 
According as it is utilized it reacts upon men for weal 
or woe. Only as personality comes into relation to 
things do these become property. As Harvey Reeves 
Calkins says : ^ 

* The Elements of Stewardship, 7. 



44 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

" In the upper region of the Amazon, hundreds of miles from 
any human habitation, travelers have found vast stretches of 
food-grains growing wild. Valuable? Most surely. Property? 
Not yet. I do not know how old this plant is. Ever since the 
earth's surface hardened into form, there has been gold in the 
western ridges of Pike's Peak. Pure gold? As pure as ever 
was fashioned into a king's goblet. Property? Not until 1890. 
Nobody knew that it was there. . . . 

" There has been but one nation whose conception of property, 
of * owning ' things, was based on the doctrines of a personal 
God, and that nation was Israel. Of all the other nations of 
which we have knowledge — the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the 
Babylonians, the Greeks, the Arabians, the Romans — their under- 
lying thought of property and their laws relating to property 
were based on the conception of impersonality in the divine 
being. For paganism is just that: thinking of deity in terms 
of impersonality. 

"Whence did we receive our accepted standards of property 
relationships? From the common law? Certainly. But our 

* common law,' where does it come from ? From the common 
law of England, except in Louisiana, where the Napoleonic code, 
known as the civil law, still is standard. But, whether the 

* common law ' or the * civil law,' where does it come from ? 
From the jurisprudence of the Roman empire. Yes, and 
where does that come from? From the Stoic philosophy of the 
Roman lawyer. When Cicero stood up in a Roman court and 
pleaded for 'the law,' he never dreamed of 'the Law of the 
Lord.' The Roman philosophy of life, crystalHzed in Roman 
law and through that law standardized in Christian civilization, 
was not builded on ' the law of the Lord ' ; it was based on 
the law of nature. 

*' Do you not recognize at once where we are ? The average 
man, — and that takes in all of us, — unless he has met the issue 
squarely and jarred himself loose from inherited traditions, 
remains caught in a pagan conception of property. His Chris- 
tian instinct is entangled with the honest behef that he ' owns ' 
what he has been given only to possess. There is no intelligent 
recognition of stewardship. How can there be? His whole 
history and the entire combination of life forces that have made 



ACQUIRING 45 

him what he is, compel him to believe — what he sincerely does 
believe — that he is the owner of his property." 



The Master of Production. Jesus laid down the 
law of increase in his classic story of the talents (Matt. 
25. 14). Each one to whom goods are committed is 
under obligation to trade therewith himself, or put the 
equivalent thereof in money with *' the bankers,'* so 
that, being kept in circulation, it shall be productive. 

The foolish virgins, likewise, are condemned for not 
going " to them that sell " and buying oil (Matt. 

25.9). 

The man in search of hidden treasure sells out 

everything and buys the field where it is located (Matt. 

13.44). 

The farmer, when he has followed his plow along 
the furrows and scattered the seed, finds sun and 
shower conspiring with the soil to bring back thirty 
or sixty or even an hundred fold when harvest-time 
rolls around — so bountiful is the good God who gives 
the increase (Mark 4. 26). 

The merchantman is represented as diligently hunt- 
ing for pearls; and when his quest succeeds, he parts 
with all else that he may acquire the pearl of great 
price (Matt. 13. 45). 

A householder is planting a vineyard, and setting a 
hedge about it, and digging a wine-press, and building 
a tower, and letting it out to husbandmen (Matt. 

21.33). 

Another is hunting the labor market for men to hire. 



46 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

and paying wages according to the usual law of supply 
and demand (Matt. 20. 1-16). 

The Master himself requisitions an ass and its colt 
by the highway, on the ground that he '' hath need of 
them'' (Matt. 21. 1-3). 

So, through eyes that nothing escapes, he makes us 
see the fisherman casting the drag-net into the sea and 
gathering in an abundant haul (Matt. 13.47, 48). 

To the Master the kingdom of God is in the very 
midst of a world bustling with all sorts of ceaseless 
activities, where men are buying and selling and get- 
ting gain. It is no part of his plan to segregate his 
iollowers in isolation camps or cloistered cells. Rather 
would he have them carry the cross along the thronged 
thoroughfares and into the very midst of the marts of 
trade and away to the far horizons, 

"Where the strange roads go down." 

In barter and trade and in all the bustle of a work-a- 
day world, Christians are to interpret the law of love 
in service and sacrifice. Jesus puts no premium upon 
indolence, but ever upon industry. Righteousness 
brings its reward, now as ever, in. assets that are nego- 
tiable on earth. ** He that tilleth his land shall have 
plenty of bread" (Prov. 12. 11). ''He that gath- 
ereth by labor shall have increase" (Prov. 13. 11). 
" In the house of the righteous is much treasure ; but 
in the revenues of the wicked is trouble" (Prov. 

15.6). 

According as a man acquires possessions for the 



ACQUIRING 47 

sake of administering them in the service of God and 
his fellow men or only for his own benefit, he becomes 
a benefactor or else an exactor. 



POINTS FOR DISCUSSION 

II. Acquiring 

Aim : To show that, in the acquiring of money, the dominating 

purpose will make a man in the process either a 

benefactor or an exactor. 

Questions Suggested by the Chapter 

How has the war made clearer the distinction between pos- 
session and ownership, as concerns the state? 

How does the distinction apply in relation to God? 

What parties contribute the value of property? 

"What the respective contribution of each partner? 

How estimate the proportions of their investments, severally? 

What difference is there between what is earned and what 
is received from others? 

Recalling the experience of getting my first money, what does 
it suggest for the benefit of others? 

What part has personality in property? 

How can I best fulfil to society the partnership involved in 
my possessions? 

How fulfil it to God? 

What does Jesus teach as to acquiring? 

Problems from Life 

I. A merchant, talking with his pastor about giving propor- 
tionately, said : " When I was a poor boy earning only a few 
dollars a week, I gave a tithe to the Lord; when I got a fairly 
good salary, I still gave my tenth to the Lord; after I became 
comfortably well off, I continued to give my tenth; even after 
I became a comparatively wealthy man, I still gave my tenth; 



48 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

but of late years my business has increased so that I can no 
longer afford to give a tenth of my profits, for I need more 
capital." 

His pastor replied : " My dear friend, when did that great 
business which you are conducting become your business; when 
did it cease to be God's business; when did you cease to be 
God's steward, conducting and administering the business for 
him?" 

Why should one not draw upon his present giving portion, 
if by thus increasing his capital he may make more money to 
give in the future? 

n. Elder Yuan, of China, and his wife had five daughters, 
when at length in answer to their prayer they were given a son, 
whom they named Tien Si, " Heaven's Gift." Their gratitude 
was expressed in more zealous service for Christ and in yet 
more generous giving. At their own expense they opened 
Christian schools and helped worthy pupils through village 
school, high school, college, and theological seminary. They 
were as ministering angels to the poor. Once, when some of 
their neighbors were in specially deep straits, the elder, not 
having ready money available, had a pig hauled away squealing 
to the market to be sold, and the need was relieved. When the 
war broke out, he opened a new line of business, including the 
manufacture of aniline dyes, which he called " The United with 
Heaven Business." It was to be conducted in partnership with 
the Lord, and the following principles were laid down as the 
basis : 

1. One tenth of all the profits to be devoted to extending 
the kingdom of God ; 

2. The whole of Elder Yuan's share to be thus devoted; 

3. No drinking or gambling to be permitted on the premises; 

4. A Gospel Meeting to be held every evening; 

5. No business to be done on the Sabbath; 

6. Only earnest Christians to be employed. 

The business prospered to such an extent as to excite the 
envy of the heathen round about. 

Can you cite a parallel to this in American business life? 
How would you adapt the basis of this Chinaman's business 
to Western conditions? 



Ill 

SPENDING 
" Use me or lose me." 



Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? 
and your labor for that which satisfieth not (Isa. 55. 2) ? 

If any provideth not for his own, and specially his own house- 
hold, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever 
(I Tim. 5.8). 

His disciples were gone away into the city to buy food 
(John 4.8). 



Ill 

SPENDING 

The true steward will look upon the outlay of his 
whole life as a trust, to be administered for God and 
for the good of men. This will include not merely his 
money, but, likewise, his time and strength, his talent 
and influence, his experience and all that goes to make 
up personality. He will expend all for his Lord and 
under his personal direction. 

Budgeting Time. He will do well to make up a 
time budget; for *^time is money." Unlike money, 
however, it cannot be saved ; it can only be spent, and, 
if not spent wisely and well, it is wasted. There is 
no way of storing it; once gone, it never returns. 
Hence, it is necessary to take it as it is passing and 
put it to the very best uses. Odd moments may be 
utilized to the greatest advantage if by foresight pro- 
vision is made to prevent them from going to waste. 
The knitting-needle, which nowadays flashes before 
our eyes on every side, affords a ubiquitous object- 
lesson of the stewardship of time. One of the lessons 
it teaches is the necessity of having a worth-while in- 
centive in order to spend time to good account. It 
is in their ability to gather up and use to advantage 

51 



52 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

the fragments of time that some men outdistance 
others in the race of life. Thus David Livingstone, 
with a Latin book before him as he worked his weav- 
er's loom, enriched his mind while employing his hands. 
By making a time budget, not only will waste be 
avoided but distribution will be more wisely made. 
Not all of one's waking hours are to be spent in work. 
Ample time should be set aside for relaxation and some 
for self-improvement, while not a little should be de- 
voted to service for others through the church and the 
community. Without applying some sort of measur- 
ing-rod true proportion may not be preserved. The 
portion of time required for earning a living will 
necessarily depend upon one's capacities, opportuni- 
ties, and obligation; but under normal conditions the 
hours devoted to this purpose should not absorb all of 
one's working energy. There should be a liberal al- 
lowance made for recreation and reading as well as 
for rest and sleep and not a little be devoted to the 
family, both at meals and elsewhere. Have you for 
a single day or, better still, for a series of days kept 
a record of how your time is spent? Have you, then, 
deliberately determined a standard and set about ad- 
justing your time to it? If not, try it. Health de- 
pends upon exercising this stewardship faithfully. 
Prodigality of physical energy, especially in early life, 
may entail debts which will inevitably be collected in 
doctor's bills and premature debility or death. But, 
far more than this, failure to spend one's time as God's 
steward should use it entails forfeiture of much of 



SPENDING 53 

the zest and joy which Hfe has in store for those who 
are faithful to this trust. 

While much of life cannot possibly be converted 
into money, yet money may exercise almost magical 
power — and that both objectively and subjectively— 
in the process of spending it. Through it personality 
may be projected to remote regions and down through 
years to come. No wonder that men become fas- 
cinated with the lure of the power thus put within 
their reach, so that in not a few cases they are caught 
in the cogs of the machinery of money-making and are 
themselves maimed, if not ruined, thereby. 

Money's Magic Power. It is said that you must 
live with people before you really come to know them. 
Perhaps it is an even surer test to have money dealings 
with them. The pocket-book is like a sensitive nerve; 
touch it and you will soon discover whether its owner 
is unselfish or otherwise. Cash is an acid test of 
character. The objects to which a man applies 
his power not only largely determine the output 
of his money to obtain it but likewise reflect the- 
true inwardness of the man. Love of family and 
friends is a powerful motive, but, if this inner 
circle is allowed to become the limit of man's 
interests to the exclusion of the claims of the 
wider world, it circumscribes his own development. 
A man cannot become larger than the mold in which 
he is being made. He who would make his environ- 
ment while his environment is making him must at- 
tend well to how he handles his money, especially in 



54 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

the spending of it. For in the disposing of money no 
less than in the making of it is the real man revealed. 
All unconsciously, it may be, his motives, his tastes, his 
affections, his aims, become objective in his money. 
As Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler used to say, " What a 
young man earns in the day goes into his pocket; but 
what he spends in the evening goes into his character." 
The spender, then, may discover what manner of man 
he is by seeing for what his money is spent. 

A Means of Molding Character. In view of the 
possibilities which the spending of money involves in 
the way of reflex effect upon character, attention 
should be given from earliest childhood to directing 
the process aright. The spending of money is the 
essential prelude to earning it. Only as its purchasing 
power is discovered is there afforded that incentive 
which is necessary to meet the cost of getting it. Too 
often a child's spending begins in purchasing self- 
indulgences. Candy stores in the vicinity of a school 
are in many instances almost wholly supported by the 
cents and nickels of children. An investigation in a 
poor neighborhood in Chicago shows that many of the 
children spend from a dime to a quarter of a dollar 
a week for sweets. A child needs first of all to be 
trained to spend properly. The lesson may need to be 
learned in some cases by first spending to poor ad- 
vantage, rather than by having free choice interfered 
-with overmuch.^ 

^ E. A. Kirkpatrick, The Use of Money: How to Save and 

Spend. 



SPENDING 55 

Using Money. Once one has money, he must forth- 
with face the responsibihty it brings — the responsi- 
bility of rightly using it. Coming in a continuous 
series, it establishes a process which forms habit and 
powerfully affects character. That indeed is a prin- 
cipal part of the purpose of money, seeing that it is 
not only an instrument with which its possessor may 
work but one by which he is himself fashioned. The 
possessor of money must be constantly making deci- 
sions as to the uses to which he will put it. 

Money is not all meant to be spent; some of it 
should be saved; much of it should be given for the 
service of God and our fellow men. How much of it 
should be saved and how much of it should be set 
apart for giving must necessarily depend upon how 
much is really required for the expenses of living. 
This will vary according to climatic, racial, economic, 
and other conditions. In the very same locality it will 
vary according to social position and training. Even 
in two cases where the income is the same the obliga- 
tions may be quite different. One couple is childless, 
while another next door has seven children. The next 
two families number the same, but in one of the homes 
there is a sickly cripple who has been dependent all 
his life long, entailing heavy doctor's bills, while in 
the other there is abounding health with never a need 
of medical services. Even though things are all fairly 
equal, there may yet be wide variation in determining 
the amount needed for living, because of varying 
capacity for management in buying and conserving 



56 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

supplies, because of previous experience or inexperi- 
ence, because of knowledge or ignorance of food values 
and of cooking, because of difference of requirements 
as to household service and the possibility of securing 
needed help. 

Lord Bacon says : ** Riches are for spending, and 
spending for honor and good actions; therefore ex- 
traordinary expense must be limited by the worth of 
the occasion; for voluntary undoing may be as well 
for a man's country as for the kingdom of heaven; 
but ordinary expense ought to be limited by a man's 
estate, and governed with such regard as it be within 
his compass; and not subject to deceit and abuse of 
servants; and ordered to the best show, that the bills 
may be less than the estimation abroad." 

Giving and Saving Regulate Spending. The 
amount available for living expenses will depend, like- 
wise, upon whether or not a definite portion is re- 
ligiously set aside to be administered in giving, ex- 
pecting no return; also upon what is being saved, by 
compulsory payments or otherwise. Here, for in- 
stance, are two brothers each receiving $4,000 a year 
and similarly situated in other respects. One, with the 
best of intentions as to giving what he can spare, scales 
his living expenses with reference to his entire income, 
and at the end of the year finds it practically all ex- 
pended. The other determines to dedicate one eighth 
of his income to be given away, and by careful 
economy finds that he has been able to save more out 
of four fifths of his salary than his brother saves out 



SPENDING 57 

of the whole. His whole plan of expenditure proceeds 
upon the basis, not of $4,000 a year, but of $3,500. 
Thus while his Benevolence Fund is always ready to 
meet every legitimate claim, it pays for itself — perhaps 
more than pays for itself — by acting as an automatic 
check upon the Vanity Fund, the Hobby Fund, the 
Folly Fund, and those other channels through which 
so much money goes to waste. 

The portion to be given should be fixed first of all; 
living expenses should then be regulated accordingly. 
And out of the balance savings should be laid aside 
and giving increased as God makes it possible. 

" The first expenditure of all should be that which 
sanctifies the rest — that which is not for self or flesh 
or earth or time, but for the Lord, for gratitude, for 
the training of the soul, for store in heaven. Our own 
morsel will be sweeter and more wholesome, too, when 
the due acknowledgment has been first laid with a 
bountiful hand and a thankful heart on the altar of 
the Savior. * Ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched 
corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye 
have brought an offering unto your God* (Lev. 23. 
14). This was the spirit of the first-fruits — a spirit 
of noble preference for the honor of God over selfish 
care." ^ 

While the portion to be given away and that to be 
saved are to be treated in later chapters, the part to 
be used for one's own living expenses now calls for the 
most careful and conscientious consideration. In many 

^ William Arthur, The Duty of Giving Away. 



58 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

cases this will be the larger part of the income and 
perhaps the more difficult to handle. For, sometimes 
it is assumed that, when once a portion has been set 
apart for unselfish purposes, one can do with the rest 
as he wills. For Christ's man, such will not be the 
case. With him the test question will be not how much 
of his money must he give to God, but how little need 
he use for his own expenses and how much can he 
give for the sake of others. 

Controlling Principles. The Christian will regu- 
late his expenditure by the principles which his Master 
taught and himself followed. There is no suggestion 
of asceticism in all the record of his life on earth. 
In the thirty years of preparation, when working at 
his trade, he no doubt spent as well as earned. He 
must have been accustomed to handle money in the 
ordinary course of his daily transactions with others 
throughout that period. But when he laid down his 
carpenter's tools and gave up his means of livelihood, 
to engage in his public ministry, he adopted a mode of 
life which in the very nature of it involved dependence 
and poverty. Those who followed him likewise de- 
liberately left behind the fishing-net and the counting- 
room. For them as for himself the principle applied 
was this, that " the laborer is worthy of his food " 
(Matt. lo. lo). As Paul afterward put it, "What 
soldier ever serveth at his own charges? Who plant- 
eth a vineyard, and eateth not the fruit thereof ? . . . 
If we sowed unto you spiritual things, is it a great 
matter if we shall reap your carnal things (i Cor. 9. 



SPENDING 59 

7-11) ? " The directions given to the Twelve (Matt. 
10), as well as those to the Seventy (Luke 10), were 
intended, not for all disciples but for those who were 
giving full-time service, which prevented them from 
providing their own support. 

To apply to all Christians what was specifically 
designed for a special class who should be devoted 
wholly to a religious ministry, a class comparatively 
limited in number, cannot but lead to confusion. Had 
there not been those who earned and spent, who built 
houses and furnished them, there would have been 
none " worthy " to receive our Lord or his messengers, 
in the villages and cities to which they came. 

No, Jesus knew — and he knew that the Father like- 
wise knew — that we " have need of these things " 
(Luke 12. 30). He expects us to have money and to 
spend it. Yes, more, the Lord leads us to expect that 
the Father himself will add " these things," if we will 
but meet the one condition of putting them always in 
their right relation to the Kingdom. All of our spend- 
ing is to be on the basis of '" first his kingdom " (Matt. 
6. 33). Given that, there can never be any room for 
worry. " He that spared not his own Son, but de- 
livered him up for us all, how shall he not also with 
him freely give us all things (Rom. 8.32)?" He 
" giveth us richly all things to enjoy " (i Tim. 6. 17). 
He who so royally clothes the lilies of the field and so 
constantly feeds the ravens on the wing will not let 
his children want for any good thing. *' No good 
thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly " 



6o MONEY THE ACID TEST 

(Psa. 84. 11). Therefore, "in nothing be anxious'* 
(Phil. 4. 6). No one ever passed through this world 
so utterly care-free as our Lord, who used it as not 
abusing it. What he instructed his messengers to do 
he did himself — entered the house where the latch- 
string was out and in that same house remained, eating 
and drinking such things as they gave (Luke 10. 7). 
He does not intend that any steward of his should 
be stinted. The Chief Partner provides, as a charge 
upon his estate, for whatever the steward may need 
in order to he at his best to do the best service for the 
Kingdom. Ample latitude is allowed. No hard and 
fast lines are laid down. God's stewards are allowed 
large liberty to use their own sound sense in deter- 
mining what is requisite, providing only and always 
that they " seek first his kingdom " and be ready at 
any time for an accounting. • 

Simple Life the Best. There is no place, however, 
for extravagance or waste in God's household. " Hav- 
ing food and covering" (i Tim. 6.8), we are to be 
therewith content. These are broad terms, and to be 
taken in no narrow sense. Food includes all that is 
needed to sustain life at its maximum efficiency — not 
merely meat for the body, but also food for thought, 
and that beauty upon which the eye is so wonder- 
fully adapted to feast. Under the category of " cover- 
ing " comes not only the coat on one's back but the roof 
over his head, together with whatever of convenience 
and of comfort may be required for the highest stand- 
ard of health and working capacity. We have no rail- 



SPENDING 6i 

ing accusation to bring against making one's home 
comfortable and beautiful, dressing well, or having 
abundance of good nourishing food on the table, pay- 
ing whatever is necessary to promote health or secure 
needed recreation. But it is quite a different matter 
when a church officer admits that he smokes on an 
average ten cigars a day, amounting in a year to more 
than $350 for this single self-indulgence. Where 
there is such callousness to others' needs, " to him it 
is sin." 

For What to Spend and How. The faithful 
steward will regulate his spending in the light of the 
foregoing principles. To do so, he will, at the outset, 
take into account what are the various objects of 
legitimate expenditure. In the main they are these: 

1. Living necessities for oneself and those de- 
pendent upon him — food, raiment, shelter, and the like. 

2. Means of higher development — education, music, 
and kindred interests. 

3. Care and repair of body and mind — recreative, 
medical, and other upbuilding agencies and the like. 

4. Government and public utilities — institutions 
which minister to the welfare of the community, state, 
and nation. 

5. Maintenance of business, profession, or other 
means of livelihood. 

The order here indicated is not necessarily the order 
of relative importance. Indeed, most of these obliga- 
tions are concurrent. They should be viewed in their 
entirety, so as to regulate what is expended for them 



62 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

with due sense of proportion in relation to one another. 

The steward is required to be a good spender. 

Among the principles to guide in spending, are these : 

1. Never spend what you have not got. 

2. Never buy what you do not need. 

3. The best is the cheapest, if really needed. 

4. Do not seek to get something for nothing or 
more than fair value. 

" When we have asked the Lord to take, and con- 
tinually trust him to keep, our money," says Frances 
Ridley Havergal, " shopping becomes a different thing. 
We look up to him for guidance to lay out his money 
prudently and rightly, and as he would lay it out. It 
may become impossible any longer to patronize the 
^ bargain counter.' For our Lord is the Lord of labor, 
even as he is the Lord of the treasury, and he will 
not be party to the sweat-shop. He insists upon a 
living wage for the lowliest laborer." 

While one should make sure to get full value for 
his outlay, nevertheless it is quite necessary to dis- 
criminate. Some sorts of " economy " may in fact 
be only wasting. It is possible to be altogether too 
sparing in spending. " Wherefore do ye spend money 
for that which is not bread? and your labor for that 
which satisfieth not (Isa. 55.2)?" A Scotch friend 
tells of a lad who, on going up for the first time from 
his highland village to London, sat down on a chair in 
Hyde Park. Before long a " Bobbie " appeared and 
demanded a " tuppence." 



SPENDING 63 

" And what should I pay a tuppence for ? *' indig- 
nantly responded the Scotch lad. 

" For sittin' on the chair," answered the officer. 

" And how long can I sit here, if I pay a tuppence? '* 

" Oh, as long as you like." 

" And, to be sure, I sat there all the rest of the 
day," triumphantly announced Sandy, when he got 
back to his native heath once more. 

" To lose money ill," says Ruskin, " is indeed often 
a crime, but to get it ill is a worse one, and to spend 
it ill is worst of all." When a man spends as God's 
steward, he must ascertain his Master's mind. Not 
what the steward wishes but what the Owner directs 
will determine every detail. 

Motive Determines. Luxury, whether it cost 
much or little, is whatever " does not best serve man's 
essential need in the pursuit of his highest develop- 
ment in respect of himself and his fellow men," and, 
of course, that is not allowable under any circum- 
stances for the Christian. 

Money spent upon oneself, however, is not neces- 
sarily spent selfishly. If spent in order to enlarge one's 
power to serve and enrich the life so as to make it 
more effective, an expenditure may be fully justified 
which would be inexcusable if made merely for one's 
own enjoyment. The motive must be the determining 
factor. Even the lavish outlay of the woman who 
bought the precious spikenard and anointed the Master 
with it was emphatically approved by him, though by 
others condemned as wasteful. Not the price of the 



64 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

thing purchased but the purpose of it determines 
whether it is a luxury or a wise investment. 

It is possible to spend money on others in a way that 
both wastes the money and injures those on whom it 
is expended. A father, writing in an American maga- 
zine, says : " I am spending $9,000 a year in raising 
my three children. By the time they are grown, I 
figure each one of them will represent an outlay of 
$100,000. Sometimes, I wonder whether this is not 
too much. Then my love for my children sweeps 
over me, and I think that nothing I can spend on them 
is too much." This man's annual income averages 
$30,000, and apparently the only consideration which 
enters in to limit what he spends upon his children is 
that of other demands upon him for expenditure; 
giving for the sake of others, outside his own family, 
does not appear to enter into his account at all. If 
it did, it might save him from doing injury to his 
children by indulgence. That father is far wiser who, 
although having an ample income, insists that, for the 
sake of the effect it is sure to have upon their own 
development, his boys shall help work their own way 
through college. 

Degrees of Expenditure. Within each main item 
of expenditure there are wide latitudes for exercising 
one's judgment between the extremes of necessity and 
luxury, with conveniences and comforts lying midway 
between. It may be worth while to define these de- 
grees in turn.^ 

^ Robert Irwin MacBride, Luxury a Social Standard. 



SPENDING 65 

A Necessity is something indispensable to well- 
being. 

A Convenience is something that, though not essen- 
tial, makes living easier. 

A Comfort is something that brings satisfaction 
without extraordinary expense. 

A Luxury is something that affords self-gratifica- 
tion in an unusual and costly manner. 

Concretely : food is a necessity ; tables, chairs, 
and crockery are conveniences; table linens are com- 
forts; Limoges chinaware, cut glass, and sterling sil- 
ver are luxuries. Definitions, however, cannot be more 
than relative, for the standards themselves necessarily 
vary according to local conditions. What would be 
luxury for one may be necessity for another. Place 
may make all the difference between luxury and needs. 
An Aleutian islander without a copper may find seal- 
skin the cheapest clothing possible, being the most 
available as well as the most suitable. But if he were 
to migrate to New York City, he might realize for a 
single sealskin enough to live on for a year or more 
upon his native island. 

Standards of luxury vary, too, in different social 
classes according as income may be sufficient or in- 
sufficient for maintaining the working efficiency of a 
family. As income increases, expenditure increases 
along the lines of greatest desires. When income 
becomes more than sufficient for physical necessities, 
then come comforts and after that luxuries. The con- 
ception of the standard of living involves, also, some 



66 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

consideration of the efforts and sacrifices people are 
prepared to make to attain it — of their ideals and char- 
acter and of the relative strength of the different mo- 
tives which usually determine their conduct. Social 
convention often affects one's estimate of luxury. 
Consider the cases of different individuals whose in- 
terests call them to go a mile : 

A — , whose time is ample and his labor cheap, pre- 
fers to walk. 

B — , having less time and more profitable labor, 
takes a trolley. 

C — , being in great demand, hires a taxicab. 

D — , hard pressed for time, keeps his own auto- 
mobile and goes in it. 

A — might find even the trolley a luxury. 
B — would not regard the taxicab as at all necessary. 
C — prefers the public taxicab to keeping a machine 
of his own. 

D — uses his limousine as a matter of course. 

It might be waste for D to hire a public taxicab, 
for C to ride in the trolley-car, or for B to expend 
his time and strength in walking. Here are four 
standards : A, the very poor ; B, the poor ; C, the well- 
to-do; D, the rich. Each of these might in turn be 
subdivided. For none of them does God lay down 
any rigid rule of spending, but this broad principle 
for all : " Seek ye first his kingdom and his righteous- 
ness, and all these things shall be added unto you " 
(Matt. 6. 33). 



SPENDING 67 

It is the glory of Christ that he takes the very thing 
that is so often bound up with self-interest — " the 
mammon of unrighteousness " — and he uses it as a 
means of righteousness, for making men like God. 
Money, the cause of so much sin and sorrow, becomes 
a means of grace to him who learns to use it for God's 
glory. According as a man spends it in self-indulgence 
or as a steward of Christ he becomes a provider or a 
prodigal. 

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION 

III. Spending 

Aim : To show that, in the outlay of life as represented by 

money and all else that it involves, a man becomes a 

provider or a prodigal according as he is or is 

not a faithful steward. 

Questions Suggested by the Chapter 

In planning the outlay of life, what besides money is to be 
reckoned ? 

What advantage in budgeting time? 

How do the objects on which money is spent reveal the true 
inwardness of the spender? 

For what did I spend my first money? How did it affect me? 

What place should spending have in child-training? 

What uses of money are there, other than for living, which 
should regulate the entire expenditure? 

Should personal expenses increase in proportion to increase 
of income? 

What principles did Jesus lay down to guide outlay? 

What are legitimate objects for which to spend? 

Under what circumstances is debt justifiable? 



68 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

What should be the dominating motive in spending? 
Distinguish between necessities and luxuries. 
Has a Christian a right ever to indulge in luxury? 

Problems from Life 

I. In the Blue Book of an establishment on Fifth Avenue 
are listed : for children — a gold spoon for $45, a rattle for $50» 
cup for $230, porringer $350, breakfast set $1,800; for women — 
shoe buttoner $138, combination cigaret and vanity case $575, 
card-case $725, shopping-bag $800, cologne bottle $1,150, dia- 
mond bracelets $14,500 and upward, pearl necklaces $30,000 up 
to $350,000; for men — cane $75, cigar holder $90, cigar case 
$260, cigaret case $500. 

A well-known grocery on the same avenue lists cigars $365 
a hundred or five dollars for a single one. Across the way 
from that cigar-counter might have been seen crowds of the 
city's poor standing in line in winter, waiting to get cast-off 
clothing to cover their nakedness. According to statements pub- 
lished by the Russell Sage Foundation, there are 10,000,000 
people — one tenth of the population in the United States — 
living in poverty, of whom 4,000,000 are public charges.^ 

What is wrong with a society which presents such a contrast? 

II. A minister in the Northwest, on a salary of $800, con- 
scientiously giving a definite proportion, being anxious to im- 
prove the church music, opened a subscription by pledging $50. 
The Ladies' Aid Committee, having the fund in hand, after 
consultation had one of the members suggest as tactfully as 
possible that his $50 be applied, instead, to employing much- 
needed household help, so as to save his wife from a physical 
breakdown. 

What would you have done, if in the minister's place? What 
would you have said, if sent to him by the Ladies' Aid Society? 
Under what item in the personal budget would you have en- 
tered the $50, if used for household help? What is the real 
remedy for such a situation? 

^ Robert Irwin MacBride, Luxury as a Social Standard. 



IV 

SAVING 

I will place no value on anything I have or may possess, 
except in relation to the kingdom of Christ/' 



There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun, 
namely riches kept by the owner thereof to his hurt; and those 
riches perish by evil adventure; and if he has begotten a son, 
there is nothing in his hand. . . . And what profit hath he, that 
he laboreth for the wind? (Eccl. 5.13-16). 

I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will 
bestow all my grain and my goods. • • • He layeth up treasure 
for himself (Luke 12.18,21). 

He heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather 

them (Ps. 39.6). 

He earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes (Hag. 1.6). 

Gather up the broken pieces which remain over, that nothing 
be lost (John 6. 12). 

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where 
moth and rust do corrupt and where thieves break through and 
steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven (Matt. 
6. 19, 20) . 



4 



IV 

' SAVING 

A Nation Learning Economy. It is an impressive 
spectacle to see a whole nation which had become 
wantonly wasteful going to school to learn to save. 
Within the very first year after entering into war the 
people of the United States of America had made 
amazing progress in economy. Where ordinarily they 
had been accustomed to save from five to six billion 
dollars annually, that amount speedily trebled. Sav- 
ings banks, postal savings, and building loan associa- 
tions all have shown steadily increasing deposits. 
Habits of thrift are being confirmed and extended 
more and more widely. Not only in money, but in all 
sorts of food-stuffs and fuel and clothing and raw 
material is the effect of saving seen. The wastage of 
saw-mills — what has hitherto been cast aside or carried 
off at the expense of the mill — in saw-dust or shavings 
or remnants of wood is now being converted into grain 
alcohol, dyes, tannin, turpentine, resin, and other val- 
uable products. Wood ashes is turned into soap — as 
it once was in nearly every home — and it is utilized as 
a substitute for potash. Even silk hose, neckties, and 
dress braids, it is found, can be made of wood. 

71 



7-2. MONEY THE ACID TEST 

In Other nations, likewise, the call to save is being 
heard and heeded. In Great Britain provision is made 
for collecting and using nearly everything which was 
formerly cast out as household waste, such as rags, 
waste paper, old metal, broken glass, old cans, and all 
sorts of kitchen refuse. It is all sorted and sent to 
centers where it can be made to replace something that 
otherwise would have to be brought in ships. Many 
experiments have been made. Oil for engines has been 
extracted from bad fish and meat, food for poultry 
and pigs from other kinds of refuse, potash from 
stalks of vegetables. Old tin cans from Nottingham 
are now yielding 400 tons of iron a year, which is 
converted into a low class steel for war purposes. 
One of the triumphs of economy has been achieved in 
the extraction and use of the oil with which leather is 
dressed. 

Thus the call to conserve resources, avoid all lux- 
uries, and cut down to the utmost even on necessities 
has been heard and heeded on all sides. 

One who resigned a bank presidency, giving up a 
salary of $50,000 a year in order to give his services 
entirely to his country without pay, has acquired the 
right to say to his fellow Americans : " This is a time 
when we must cut expenses to the bone. Young men 
who spend money for flowers, candy, theaters, and 
other luxuries for their best girls; people who give 
rich dinners and decorate their homes lavishly for 
entertainments; all who buy things to-day that they 
can do without, are allies of the Kaiser." For, surely. 



SAVING 73 

if the soldier at the front is required to lay aside all 
unnecessary impedimenta, it is but fair that those who 
remain at home should, likewise, unload all that is not 
really requisite. 

Stopping Leaks, Yet Opening Others. Is it not 
strange, then, that while a nation thus sets itself to 
stop leakage at some points, it permits much of the 
salvage from this source to seep away uselessly at 
other points ? While insisting on wheatless and meat- 
less meals, why raise extra funds to melt away in 
" smoke " ? Internal Revenue Department returns 
show that the number of cigars consumed in the United 
States within a period of twelve months increased by 
about a billion, reaching the enormous total of 9,216,- 
901,113, being an average of 90 for every inhabitant, 
man, woman, and child. The number of cigarets con- 
sumed within the same year increased more than forty 
per cent., totaling 30,529,193,338. Even were there 
no physical injury involved, can the expenditure 
annually of a billion dollars for tobacco, with no bene- 
fit to show for it, be regarded as other than wanton 
waste ? The indictment against the nation on account 
of the drink traffic is still more serious, both because 
the damage done is even greater and because the gov- 
ernment profits directly from the business. While the 
German submarines sunk 8,000,000 bushels of grain, 
the American brewers sunk 68,000,000 bushels, be- 
sides 64,000,000 pounds of sugar, in manufacturing 
beer. While householders were unable to get coal at 
any price and ordinary business was suspended for 



74 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

want of heat, the breweries used 3,000,000 tons of 
coal to run their plants and 3,000,000 more for trans- 
porting their product. They absorbed the labor of 
65,000 men, who were needed in ship-building and 
other industries essential to winning the war. The 
annual drink bill of the country the year before the 
war was $2,400,000,000, which was enough to take 
up the First Liberty Loan and pay the whole cost of 
the Panama Canal in addition. 

For the most part, the American people, in the 
United States as well as in Canada, have responded 
nobly to the call to save. Of the readers of a popular 
periodical, residents in every section, to whom was put 
the question early in the war whether the people in 
their neighborhood were economizing, 385 answered 
" Yes," while only 80 answered " No." To the ques- 
tion whether the Second Liberty Loan issue had been 
willingly taken by the smaller investors and wage- 
earners, 399 answered " Yes," only 67 " No." To the 
question whether the burden of increased taxation is 
willingly borne or whether a larger part of the war 
burden should be put upon posterity, only 58 would 
shift any of the load, while 398 approved of the 
present provision. The Secretary of the Treasury de- 
clares, however, that " the American people are not 
sufficiently aroused even yet to the necessity of 
economy and saving. What is of superlative impor- 
tance is that our people shall be impressed with the 
necessity of economizing in the consumption of articles 
of clothing, food, and fuel, and of everything which 



SAVING 75 

constitutes a drain upon the available supplies, ma- 
terials, and resources of the country. To waste any- 
thing now is little short of criminal." 

The inevitable result of nation-wide saving is seen 
in unprecedented accumulation of money, in spite of 
the greatly increased cost of living. Not only have 
hundreds of millions of dollars been turned into phil- 
anthropic war funds and billions have been invested 
in the safest of savings through the Victory and 
Liberty Loans, but at the same time, out of the same 
reservoir, contributions through church channels have 
continued to come in greater volume than before. If 
the cause be sought, probably, it is not that so much 
more money is being made but that so much is being 
saved. 

Peace Has Claims. What is gained through sheer 
stress of war should be conserved permanently in times 
of peace. Are not the ever-present needs involved in 
the greater war with ignorance and poverty and crime 
quite as real and pressing as those we are facing, for 
the time being, by reason of our struggle with the 
Central Powers of Europe ? Improvidence is the pro- 
lific parent of poverty. Wastefulness is always weak- 
ness. Economy and thrift are alHes of the larger life. 
The simple life should be our normal state. Having 
learned to save, we must not go back to wasting in 
selfish indulgence, when the need for war funds has 
passed. If, when that time comes, the present rising 
tide of liberality which has been made possible by sav- 
ing is not turned largely into church channels for the 



>](> MONEY THE ACID TEST 

-purposes of the kingdom of God, it will flow back 
again in an overwhelming flood of self-indulgence. 
What was done to protect the city of Galveston against 
a recurrence of the disaster of a tidal wave, Christian 
statesmanship is called upon now to do for all 
Christendom. A sea-wall must be built to hold in 
check the waves of materialism. Stewardship is the 
effective measure which will serve the purpose of the 
present momentous hour. Men must be taught to 
save, not for themselves but for ministering in behalf 
of the kingdom of God in a world of appalling need 
and of challenging opportunity. The world's wealth 
must be developed and stored, that it may be utilized 
for carrying out the program of Christ in the redemp- 
tion of all life. 

Start with Childhood. To this end, the process 
of saving should start in earliest childhood. As soon 
as one commences to receive or earn, he should begin 
to save. Fortunate is the child who learns the cost 
as well as the use of money. Along with the sense 
of possession should be developed the instinct of provi- 
dence together with that of generosity. The first 
quarter of a dollar which I earned — by shouting over 
the top of a tree — after being stowed away in the 
capacious pocket of my first pair of trousers, would 
probably have soon disappeared with nothing to re- 
member it by, save an aching void somewhere, had 
my benevolent uncle not filled the role of a wise big 
brother. To the quarter which he paid me he added 
the sagacious advice — indeed, the condition — that I 



SAVING 77 

put it in the bank. Not every boy could open a bank 
account with twenty five cents, but I was fortunate 
enough to have another relative who was cashier of a 
bank in my home town. So, on returning to my home, 
I lost no time in making my way to the bank, where 
I laid the shining silver on the counter and forthwith 
rose to the dignity of a depositor. I had become a 
capitalist, and the sense of importance which my bank- 
book brought was worth many times the amount 
credited to my account. Even if the annual interest 
on my first saving was only one cent — since " Uncle 
Sam " had failed to provide a coin small enough to 
cover the additional fraction — I look back now on that 
fund as to the day of small things which the Scrip- 
tures explicitly warn us not to despise. 

Begin Early to Save. The time to begin to save 
is in youth, because expenses are less then than later 
in life. The earlier savings are put into life insurance, 
too, the lower the rate. The same $1,000 policy which, 
taken at 18 years of age, cost $15 a year, will cost 50 
per cent, more if not taken until the age of 35, while 
at 45 it will cost 100 per cent. more. There will be 
more time for interest to accrue on savings if invested 
in youth. Each $100 invested at 4 per cent, when 20 
years of age, will have earned $480.10 by the time 
sixty years is reached; if invested ten years later, it 
will have earned $324.34; if twenty years later, 
$219.11. If the average young worker will save 10 
per cent, of what he earns from the time he begins 
until fifty years of age, and will put it in a savings 



78 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

bank, by that time his savings will be earning more 
than he can himself earn from that point on. 

Most important of all, youth is the time to earn, 
because it is the time for forming habit, the time when 
companions are chosen, when good impulses are strong- 
est, when ideals are highest. It is the mating time, too, 
and the time to begin getting a nest is the time to lay 
by the nest-egg. 

It was a wise provision of the Jewish race, that 
each lad must learn a trade, whether he were rich or 
poor. For though wealth may prove to be a bar — as 
in the case of the rich young ruler — to shut one out 
of the kingdom of heaven, yet thrift involves no such 
peril; rather is it a source of independence and help- 
fulness.^ 

Benefits of Saving. Undoubtedly saving of the 
right sort is of great bentfit in many ways. It obviates 
waste, it conserves forces, it prepares for meeting the 
inevitable demands of the future; but, more impor- 
tant than conserving any amount of material resources, 
is the effect produced upon the character of those who 
save, provided the motive and the method of saving is 
right. 

If parents accumulate riches to bequeath to their 
families, they wrong their heirs by depriving them of 
the very development of character which comes 
through earning and caring for and using their posses- 
sions. Accumulated riches not uncommonly prove a 

^ Adapted from Jeremiah W. Jenks' Significance of the Teach' 
ings of Jesus. 



SAVING 79 

curse, as was the case with the manna of old, breeding 
corruption, if kept. 

Ways of Saving. There are safer and better ways 
nowadays than the broken china cup on the cotter's 
mantle or the old stocking or the mattress or the 
bureau drawer. The bank, with its incentive of the 
Christmas saving fund, the federal post-office savings 
department, the savings department in connection with 
the public schools, the war savings stamps and Victory 
and Liberty Loans of the federal governments — all 
these help to extend habits of saving among the 
masses. Thrift departments in Young Men's and 
Young Women's Christian Associations serve a useful 
purpose; whole communities are being systematically 
trained to save through agencies such as these. Life 
insurance of the right sort is one of the very best ways 
of laying by for the morrow. Building loan associa- 
tions make it possible for many a family of limited 
means to secure their own homes within a series of 
years. The compulsory payments thus made neces- 
sary serve as an automatic check on unnecessary ex- 
penditure. The reserve thus accumulated affords a 
sound basis for domestic comfort and happiness. 

Some saving is losing; it is putting money into a 
bag with holes. Unwise investing often suddenly 
sweeps away what has been accumulated, it may be 
laboriously, through long years. It is estimated that 
seventy-five per cent, of monies received from life 
insurance policies is dissipated within five years. The 
desire to secure large and quick returns is accountable 



8o MONEY THE ACID TEST 

for the losing of much money through speculative in- 
vestment. Certainly those who cannot afford to write 
it off to " profit and loss ^' should never put their 
money in any other than safe securities, approved by 
those qualified to advise. Of business undertakings 
it is said that eighty-five per cent, fail, and that by 
reason of defects of character in those who conduct 
them. 

Objects to Save For. Among legitimate objects 
for which to save, are these: provision for further 
self-improvement; for marriage; for securing a home 
of one's own and for enlarging or repairing it; pro- 
viding for '' a rainy day," against possible sickness or 
other extraordinary need, or for old age; for capital 
to start, carry on, or enlarge one's business ; above all, 
for giving to relieve the wants of others, benefit the 
world, and extend the kingdom of righteousness and 
peace and joy through all the earth. 

No Premium upon Improvidence. Our Lord puts 
no premium upon improvidenoe. All through his 
teaching he lays down the principle of obligation to 
multiply and increase. In his classic story of the 
Talents (Matt. 25. 14-30) he shows that, no matter 
what the amount, unless it be increased by use, it will 
inevitably be forfeited. There is no place in all God's 
economy for the " unprofitable." Men who " trade " 
and " make," who *' sow " and " reap," " strew " and 
''^ gather," "put out money to the exchangers" and 
show good profits, these receive honorable mention 
from our Lord. But there is absolutely no use for 



SAVING 8i 

those who show no result (Matt. 25. 30). The seed 
cast upon the earth comes back, " some a hundred- 
fold, some sixty, some thirty" (Matt. 13.23). The 
mustard seed "is less than all seeds; but when it is 
grown, it is greater than herbs, and becometh a tree " 
(Matt. 13.32). 

Jesus insists, too, on the principle of conserving 
the increase. He is not for squandering resources. 
Those who provide no oil in their vessels with their 
lamps, he portrays as " foolish," while the provident 
are commended as "wise" (Matt. 25.8). They 
utterly mistake the Master's meaning who seek to show 
that the Christian is distrusting God when he takes out 
an insurance policy or makes provision for the future. 
When our Lord condemned the Foolish Farmer (Luke 
12. 20), it was not because he proposed to pull down 
his barns and build greater; it was not because he in- 
tended to lay by seed for next season's planting and an 
ample food supply — and perhaps more besides — for his 
family, but because the egotist was actually planning 
to bestow in his new barns all his fruits and his goods. 
No wonder that for him that very day was the day of 
judgment. " So is he that layeth up treasure for him- 
self y and is not rich toward God." With his barns 
bulging with big crops here, that farmer was bankrupt 
for the hereafter. No, he who said, " Lay not up for 
yourselves treasures upon earth," was careful to add, 
"where moth and rust consume" (Matt. 6.19). 
Moths do not bother things that are being worn, nor 
do razors rust when in constant use. Only that con- 



82 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

sumes which is hoarded, heaped up, and kept idle, not 
doing the purpose of Providence nor contributing to 
the welfare of men. 

Jesus did not mean that men should " take no 
thought for the morrow " ^ when he insisted, that, 
with such a Father as we have in heaven there is not 
the slightest excuse for anxious w^orrying about the 
unknown to-morrow; the latter is very different from 
exercising prudent foresight and anticipating needs 
which are sure to come. Even the birds, to whom our 
Lord refers us as examples, teach us to be provident. 
Jesus clearly points out what a man's relation should 
be to *' things " (Luke 12. 15). "A man's life con- 
sisteth not in the abundance of the things which he 
possesseth " ; yet the '' Father knows " quite well, how 
essential things are to earth dwellers (v. 30) ; men, 
however, must get their minds clear as to '' whose " 
these things shall be (v. 20) ; and, if held and used in 
right relation to the kingdom of God, all things that 
are really needed will be '* added.'' Hence, hoarding 
is the height of foolishness; all such saving is but 
wasting. 

Possible Peril in Saving. But, necessary as it is 
to be provident, there is need to be ever on guard 
against the subtle temptation which may accompany 
the saving of money. To save money merely for the 
sake of saving it, cannot but be dwarfing in its effect. 
For money is not value in itself, but merely a measure 

* The quotations in this paragraph are from the Authorized 
Version. 



SAVING 83 

of value of that which can be obtained from its use. 
Unused, money is utterly useless, and indeed it may 
be worse than useless; it may be a positive injury. 
No swimmer can stay under water long and live. 
What holding the breath is to inhalation and exhala- 
tion in the respiratory system saving is to earning and 
spending in the economic system. It may be wise, 
indeed necessary, at times to hold one's breath, but to 
hold it too long is fatal. So it is with saving. To 
save for the sake of saving is hoarding. That process 
makes the miser — and misery. Saving atrophies the 
soul of him who saves that which should be spent or 
given. 

Jesus warned against the " deceitfulness of riches " 
choking the word of truth (Mark 4. 19). He shows 
how hard it is for them *' that trust in riches to enter 
the kingdom of God'* (Mark 10.24). He pro- 
nounced " woe " upon the rich : ^* Woe unto you that 
are rich ! for ye have received your consolation " 
(Luke 6.24). He gathered up his teaching on this 
subject in his interview with the Rich Young Ruler 
(Mark 10) and in the story of the Foolish Farmer 
(Luke 12). 

Is Saving Doubting God's Providence? There 
is a danger of being so provident for oneself as 
to lose sight of the promise of divine providence. 
"To many people thrift is a virtue because it implies 
self-control in the present and foresight for the future. 
But, if Jesus had substituted a bank balance for the 
Father's care, his teaching would have excluded nine 



84 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

out of ten wage-earners. He was against laying up 
treasure on earth, because he realized that all prop- 
erty is liable, first, to moth and rust, by which is 
meant the depreciation that results inevitably from 
postponed use ; and second, to theft with violence like 
war. We read, too, of the farmer whose barns were 
full, but who did not sow his surplus corn or sell it 
for bread, so as to relieve the market, but pulled down 
his barns, which was a waste of property, in order to 
build greater, which was a waste of works; yet over- 
looked his own health. The financier was a fool, 
because he thought only of his assets, forgetting his 
liabilities, which included a mortgage on his soul due 
to a sleepless Creditor, who foreclosed that very night 
after business hours. Wealth unspent made the man 
a miser." ^ 

Saving Which Is Robbery. There is a form of 
enforced saving practised by many churches at the 
expense of the ministers; it is by delaying payment of 
salary, thus compelling the pastor to carry the interest 
on his own back-pay. Thus the pastor is made a 
sort of loan office, forced to become a money-lender 
to his parishioners, advancing his salary without in- 
terest for longer or shorter periods. Such " saving " 
on the part of a Christian church is execrably un- 
christian. It calls for just such sternly outspoken 
denunciation as James administered to the men of 
his own day; " Behold, the hire of the laborers . . . 
which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and 

* P. Whitwell Wilson, The Christ We Forget. 



SAVING 85 

the cries of them that reaped are entered into the ears 
of the Lord of Sabaoth " (James 5. 4). 

Is It Right to Be Rich? The question whether a 
Christian has a right to be rich, involves all stages of 
a man's relation to money — the acquiring, the saving, 
and the using of it; possibly, however, it is involved 
most in saving, for no matter how much a man makes, 
if it goes as quickly as it comes, he never can be rich. 

To be sure, " riches " is a relative term varying 
according to conditions of time and place. In the 
United States, in 191 7, there were as many as ten 
incomes of as much as five million dollars; nine of 
four million; fourteen of three million; thirty-four of 
two million. In Great Britain there were even more 
of these vast incomes — seventy-nine of as much as five 
million dollars and sixty-eight of four million, al- 
though further down the scale the numbers were not 
so large over there as on this side. 

It is significant indeed, to hear one of these same 
American millionaires, himself connected with great 
corporations, express himself thus: 

" We are beyond question entering on a period where the 
welfare of the community takes precedence over the interests 
of the individual, and where the liberty of the individual will 
be more and more circumscribed for the benefit of the com- 
munity as a whole. Our only decoration — the almighty dollar — 
is not as highly prized as it used to be. The man of excep- 
tional ability, of more than ordinary talent, will hereafter look 
for his rewards, for his honors, not in one direction, but in 
two : first and foremost, in some public work accomplished, and 
only secondarily, in wealth acquired. In my judgment, the 
fashion of acquiring wealth simply for the sake of possessing 



86 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

it has about reached its greatest height, and the fashion of per- 
forming pubHc service for the sake of its performance is coming 
into vogue. If I am right, then the problem of the man of the 
future is not how he can acquire a very large personal fortune, 
but how he can acquire a competency and at the same time fit 
himself to be an all-round citizen and render some worth-while 
public service. 

" The period that is upon us offers large opportunities for in- 
dividual thought, initiative, and action. It calls for original 
thinking, for constructive work, for clean, healthy bodies; and 
staunch courage will find a myriad of opportunities in the great 
new period upon which we are just entering and which carries 
so much promise for humanity. 

"A reconstructive period is at hand. It is not simply local, 
nor is it merely national; it is international, world-wide. The 
mighty changes that are taking place in Europe tell us this 
with unmistakable voices. The man of the future must realize 
all this. He must be ready to adjust himself to the new con- 
ditions that are crowding upon us. 

"The only justification for large wealth in the hands of the 
few is its use for service to society. It need not necessarily 
all be given away, but it must be used generously. If fairly 
won by work and care, its very accumulation, giving fair and 
honest employment to others, should be regarded as a reward 
for a service to society, and so be regulated by a high ideal. 
The Christian's wealth is held only as a trust, a means of 
service to others, and like all the work given us to do and the 
trusts given us to keep, it is a means, precarious indeed, as 
Jesus so unmistakably taught, but still, if wisely, humbly, 
thoughtfully employed, a means of character development." ^ 

The Problem of Excessive Riches. Not by laying 
violent hands upon what men by their ability and in- 
dustry have accumulated, but by applying the teach- 
ings of Jesus as to the using as well as the acquiring 
and conserving of property in the interest of the king- 

^ George W. Perkins, in an after-dinner speech. 



SAVING 87 

dom of God on earth, shall the better day be ushered 
in. If men but give of their money as Jesus enjoins, 
the same solution of social problems will be continually 
resulting as was provided for by the redistribution of 
property in the year of jubilee, under the old Hebrew 
law of land tenure. Men should be enjoined to em- 
ploy their powers to the full ; to conserve carefully the 
results of their labor ; but, always, with a view to put- 
ting them to the largest possible use. For, as a man 
safeguards saving by using continually and to the best 
possible advantage, he determines whether in the 
process he is himself becoming a fruitful conserver 
or a blighting miser. 



POINTS FOR DISCUSSION 

IV. Saving 

Aim : To show that, in the saving of money, it is the practise of 

stewardship which makes the difference in the outcome 

between a conserver and a miser. 

Questions Suggested by the Chapter 

Show how the war has been teaching economy in a new way 
to entire nations. 

How may what is saved in some ways be lost in others? 

How can the lessens in saving be applied to advance the king- 
dom of God? 

Why should we start a child saving as soon as he has money? 

What benefits will accrue? 

What are the best ways to save? 

For what objects is one justified in saving? 



88 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

To what extent is laying up for the future consistent with 
trust in the Father's care? 

What considerations should control in the bequeathing of 
property? 

What does my experience suggest for the guidance of others? 

What is Jesus' attitude toward saving? 

Show whether or not it is right to be rich, and to what 
extent. 

How shall we safeguard against the dangers involved? 

Problems from Life 

I. A Pennsylvania woman gives this experience : 

" When fourteen years old and working for $2 a week, I 
began to save systematically. Half of my weekly allowance of 
10 cents was devoted to the church contribution, and I de- 
termined never to spend the last cent of my own 5 except for 
something absolutely necessary. The old purse which held 
those last cents filled slowly. When my allowance was increased 
to 25 cents a week, any of the 12 retained for myself remain- 
ing on Saturday night went with the last one and I began 
each week afresh. When I had 50 cents a week, I resolved 
never to break my last nickel, except in an emergency, and the 
purse filled faster. On an allowance of $1, I bought a dime- 
bank, and a dime in it each pay-day gave me $5 at the end 
of the year to put in the savings-bank. A tin box received 
odd new coins, and another held small change left over when 
I bought something for a little less than I expected; and these 
two added about $5 a year more to my account. When I began 
to manage all my earnings myself, I made the last dollar the 
unit which must not be broken, and as soon as circumstances per- 
mitted I took shares in a building association and increased 
them from time to time. I have not grown wealthy, but on a 
working woman's wages, with family responsibilities and much 
sickness, I have laid by a comfortable sum for my old age." 

In what respects can you improve on this plan? 

II. In a church on the Pacific Coast one Sunday, after I had 
spoken, an elderly woman came up to speak to me and slipped 
into my hand a $100 bill which she wished to have go to a 



SAVING 89 

mission school in Persia. The silk dress she wore had once 
been black, but now was a rusty brown. The people of the 
church regarded her as a pauper. Imagine my surprise, then, 
when, on meeting me by appointment next day, she informed me 
that she had $1,000 in the bank, to add to the $100 which she had 
handed me the day before. And a little later, when her confi- 
dence had increased, she proposed to turn over city house prop- 
erty valued at $10,000. She wished it all to go to the school in 
Persia. Then I found that the beginning of her interest dated 
back more than a half century to a New England Sunday- 
school class of which the teacher was Fidelia Fiske, founder of 
the Girls' School in Urumiah, Persia. Through long years of 
loneliness and privation, the Sunday-school scholar had saved, 
and now wished to apply what was in fact nearly all of her 
possessions, long stored up, to perpetuate the life-work of the 
guide, philosopher, and friend of her girlhood days. But she 
had stinted herself more than was wholesome. I found that 
she was occupying cramped, ill-furnished quarters. The dust 
was so thick on the chair that it was necessary to spread out a 
newspaper before sitting down. 

What was wrong with this woman's conception of saving, and 
how would you have managed it differently? 



V 

GIVING 

Give, not from the top of your purse, but from the bottom 

of your heart." 



Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, 
It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20.35). 

God so loved . . . that he gave (John 3. 16). 

God loveth a cheerful [gleeful] giver (2 Cor. 9.7). 

He that giveth, let him do it with liberality (Rom. 12.8). 

He sat down over against the treasury, and beheld how the 
multitude cast money into the treasury (Mark 12.41). 

He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto Jehovah, and his 
good deed will he pay him again (Prov. 19. 17). 

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed 
down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your 
bosom (Luke 6.38). 



. V 
GIVING 

Giving, a Trait of God. God is the great Giver. 
He never buys nor sells, but he gives unceasingly. It 
is of the very essence of his nature to give, and the 
more he gives the richer he is. 

" He himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all 
things'* (Acts 17.25). "He . . . gave you from 
heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts 
with food and gladness" (Acts 14. 17). "It is he 
that giveth thee power to get wealth" (Deut. 8. 18). 
" God so loved the world, that he gave his only be- 
gotten son " (John 3. 16). " And he that spared not 
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall 
he not also with him freely give us all things (Rom. 
8. 32) ? " '' God . . . giveth us richly all things to 
enjoy " (i Tim. 6. 17). 

We have no instrument of precision sufficiently 
accurate to measure God's capacity for giving. 
The nearest approach to an analysis is in the table of 
cubic measure outlined in the sixteenth verse of the 
third chapter of the Gospel according to John : 

Its Height: the source, the motive, of all true giving 
is Love — " For God so loved that he gave." 

93 



94 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

Its 'Depth: the test of all true giving is its Cost — 
" He gave his only begotten Son." 

Its Breadth: the scope of all true giving is the 
World — " For God so loved the world, that he gave 
his . . . Son." 

Its Length: the end and outcome of all true giving 
is Life — " that whosoever believeth in him should 
. . . have everlasting Life/' 

Here is the divine standard of all true giving. If 
any of the four dimensions be lacking, it is not giving 
like unto God's; indeed it is not true giving at all. 

Not a Method of Raising Money but Men. God 
has no need of gifts from man ; in fact it is impossible 
for man to give to God except only indirectly in min- 
istering to the needs of his children. " All that is in 
the heavens and in the earth is thine; all things come 
of thee" (i Chron. 29. 11-14). Giving is not for 
God's benefit but for our own. As Paul explained to 
the agnostics of Athens, " The God that made the 
world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven 
and earth, dwelleth not in sanctuaries (margin) made 
with hands; neither is he served by men's hands, as 
though he needed anything, seeing he himself giveth to 
all life, and breath, and all things " (Acts 17. 24, 25). 

" My father is rich in houses and lands ; 
He holdeth the wealth of the world in his hands ; 
Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold, 
His coffers are full, he hath riches untold." 

Only a little while ago, prospectors in Colorado 
opened a pocket of solid silver valued at several million 



GIVING 95 

dollars. God has many more such deposits stowed 
away in unsuspected vaults all over the earth. Any 
day he could turn into the treasuries of his Kingdom 
a stream of wealth which would overflow the coffers. 
It were easier far for God to tap these reserve funds 
of his and finance the church, with its entire mission- 
ary enterprise, without delay than to overcome the 
stinginess of those who bear his name. But God knows 
that the only way to make his people like himself is to 
develop in them his own unselfishness. With mar- 
velous patience, therefore, he waits until we, too, learn 
to give. It is for this reason that he gives so impor- 
tant a place to stewardship, as the primary process of 
transforming men into his likeness. Stewardship is 
not a mere method of raising money, it is one of God's 
schools for raising men. 

The Giver Transformed. In this process, giving is 
made an acid test of character. Of all the graces, giv- 
ing is that which is " likest God within the soul." 
How is it possible to be truly godlike without learning 
to give like God, who is always giving? What better 
evidence could there be of genuine Christlike living 
than that of generous godlike giving? What wonder, 
then, that God has taken such infinite pains to develop 
in man " this grace also " ? In bringing up his human 
family, knowing so well what is in man, the Father has 
provided, in the grace of giving, a divine antidote for 
human selfishness. Only the spirit of God can eradi- 
cate this root-sin and make to grow in human hearts 
the love which '* buds into beneficence." This takes 



96 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

time. Babies are born into the world with hands tight 
closed; in many cases it takes a lifetime to get them 
to stay open; in some cases life seems too short to 
learn the lesson of the open hand. Lowell declares : 

" He is dead whose hand is not open wide 
To help the need of a human brother ; 
He doubles the length of his lifelong ride 
Who gives his fortunate place to another ; 
And a thousand million lives are his 
Who carries the world in his sympathies — 
To give is to live." 

There are two types of life: the self-centered and 
the Christ-centered; the former is essentially selfish 
and grasping, the latter self-denying and giving. A 
man becomes assimilated to the object he worships. 
And since worship is essentially the recognition of 
God's sovereignty and ownership of all, it is most 
fitting that giving should have been ordained to be an 
integral part of the worship of God. 

The Acid Test. Hence, it is not strange that the 
question of man's relation to money has been made 
the acid test at each successive stage of the develop- 
ment of the people of God, from the Exodus onward. 
A conspicuous public example was given in the case 
of Achan (Josh. 7. 1-18), as Israel was about to enter 
on its national life. Again, on the threshold of the 
history of the Christian church Ananias and Sapphira 
stand as fearful warnings for all time to come against 
the sin of covetousness (Acts 5. i-ii). 

In the church of to-day there is all too much of that 



GIVING 97 

sickly sentimentality which harps upon *' the freedom 
of the gospel." In every congregation there is a con- 
siderable proportion of hangers-on who sponge upon 
others for their religious privileges. They are reli- 
gious paupers who make the church serve as their 
spiritual poorhouse. If they contribute at all to its 
support, it is only an occasional dole for the sake of 
keeping up appearance of respectability when the plate 
is passed. They are near relatives to the old deacon 
who declared, "Thank God, the gospel is free; I've 
been a church-member for forty years, and it hasn't 
cost me a cent." Fortunately the introduction of the 
Every Member Plan is compelling some of these 
slackers to come out of hiding. 

" Again a New Commandment." A matter of 
such momentous consequence as the Father's plan of 
training his children in the grace of giving could not 
be left to human caprice. It has been made a required 
branch of study in the school of Christ. While giving 
is a grace and a joyous privilege, it is, likewise, a duty 
incumbent on every subject of the Kingdom. That 
were an emasculated type of Christian life which 
would treat obligations under the gospel as less bind- 
ing than those of the law. Our Lord made it unmis- 
takably plain that he did not come to subtract anything 
from the law but to fulfil it. There is a decalog of 
the New Testament as well as of the Old. And the 
New goes a degree beyond the Old at every point. 
The eighth command, "Thou shalt not steal" (Ex. 
20. 15), becomes in the New, "Freely ye received, 



98 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

freely give" (Matt. lo. 8). What is negative in the 
Old becomes positive in the New, coupled with abound- 
ing blessing: "Give, and it shall be given unto you; 
good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running 
over, shall men give into your bosom " (Luke 6. 38). 
In the great manifesto of the Kingdom, after portray- 
ing the '' blessed " new man (Matt. 5. 1-16) and out- 
lining the new law (Matt. 5. 17-48), the King, when 
he comes to indicate the essentials of the new life, sets 
giving and praying as the twin pillars of the strait 
gate (Matt. 7. 13). And he puts giving even before 
praying for the self-evident reason that no one can 
consistently pray who is not willing also to pay. 
Obligation grows ever larger and more compelling 
under the gospel. In the new life there is the pro- 
pulsive as well as expulsive power of a new affection. 
To quote Bishop Moule: 

" The ransom which releases also purchases ; the Lord's 
freeman is the Lord's property. The liberty of the gospel is the 
silver side of the same shield whose side of gold is an uncondi- 
tional vassalage to the liberating Lord. . . . To be a bond- 
servant is terrible in the abstract ; to be ' Jesus Christ's bond- 
servant ' is paradise in the concrete. Self-surrender taken alone 
is a plunge into a cold void ; when it is surrender to ' the Son 
of God v/ho loved me, and gave himself up for me' (Gal. 2.20), 
it is the bright home-coming of the soul to the seat and sphere 
of life and power." 

Not Merit-Making. Much that is called giving is 
not really giving at all. What is parted with for the 
purpose of acquiring merit is not giving. A large 
branch of the church, claiming exclusive right to repre- 



GIVING 9g 

sent Christ on earth, carries on a vast trade in in- 
dulgences, with a graduated scale of minimum prices 
for various religious privileges ; births, baptisms, mar- 
riages, funerals, masses — all are tagged with a price- 
mark. Essentially the same practise prevails in non- 
Christian countries, though in a somewhat different 
form. In India a man " makes merit " by erecting by 
the roadside a stone shelf, supported by pillars, of a 
height convenient for resting the burden which a coolie 
carries upon his head. In China it takes the form of 
a shelter, with a seat affording protection 

" From the burning of the noontide heat 
And the burden of the day." 

The building of a bridge or a road is supposed to bring 
a double measure of merit, because the benefit is shared 
by so many. Elsewhere the form may vary, but the 
motive is the same. None of this can be counted as 
giving. What is , contributed under compulsion or 
without free will to give cannot be regarded as a 
gift. An old man who all his life had been accus- 
tomed to put "pennies" on the collection plate, at 
church one Sunday, mistaking a gold half -eagle for a 
bright one-cent piece, put it on the plate. On discov- 
ering what he had done, he went next morning to make 
recovery, only to find that the collection had already 
been deposited in bank. Then he consoled himself by 
saying, '' Well, I'll get credit for giving $5 this time, 
anyhow." "Not at all," was the reply; "you'll get 
credit for only what you intended to give." 



lOO MONEY THE ACID TEST 

Not Bequeathing. What is bequeathed, to be dis- 
tributed after death, is that to be regarded as given? 
There may be conditions in which it is wise to ac- 
cumulate and withhold until one has gone, having 
directed by a last will and testament how the funds 
shall be applied. Great art galleries and educational 
foundations are for the most part due to such pro- 
visions. But such cases are exceptional. " How 

much did Mr. Blank give to College when he 

died?" "He did not give a cent. He left $50,000. 
He could not help leaving it behind, for he could 
not take any of it along." 

That may or may not be fair to Mr. Blank, for, if 
the bequest came out of his capital, it was needed as 
long as he could do business. The question is not 
whether the worker may keep his tools as long as he 
continues to work; but how did he deal wuth his in- 
come? Did he, while still acquiring, set apart and 
give away a worthy portion all the while? If not, he 
defrauded himself as well as others, and above all he 
disobeyed and dishonored God. Where he has gone 
his account will be audited. 

Not Self-Advertising. Contributing in order to 
advertise oneself is not giving. Men may erect li- 
braries and art galleries and even church buildings 
which prove an inestimable boon to multitudes for gen- 
erations, and yet not have really given at all. " They 
have received their reward," said our Lord, but it is 
" no reward of your Father who is in heaven " (Matt. 
6. i). It was against such self-exploitation that he 



GIVING loi 

uttered the warning, " Sound not a trumpet before 
thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogs and in 
the streets, that they may have glory of men. But 
when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what 
thy right hand doeth; that thy alms may be in secret, 
and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense 
thee openly " (Matt. 6. 2-4). 

Not Exchanging. Exchanging presents is not giv- 
ing. This custom is not confined to the Chinese. It 
prevails on a vast scale throughout Christendom in 
connection with the celebration of the birth of the 
Christ, who himself said, ** If ye lend to them of whom 
ye hope to receive, what thank have ye ? Even sinners 
lend to sinners, to receive again as much" (Luke 

6.34). 

Is, then, that a gift which brings a full equivalent in 
return ? For example, what a man contributes for the 
support of his own church usually brings back one 
hundred cents on the dollar — and of ttimes even more : 
intellectually, from the pulpit; musically, from the 
choir; socially, in the intercourse of himself and family 
with other members of the church; spiritually, in pas- 
toral care and fellowship with the body of believers, 
and in manifold other ways; even materially, in the 
very value of property, enhanced by the presence of 
the church. True, in some cases the church may 
yield no return commensurate with the amount con- 
tributed. The preaching may be poor, the " music " 
an offense to the ear, the social conditions utterly un- 
congenial, even spiritual atmosphere sadly lacking. It 



102 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

is for none of these things that one should identify 
himself with the church, but, rather, to worship God 
and to serve his fellow men. 

It is no less true, that what one contributes for home 
missions, whether applied in the local community or 
in the nation, inevitably reacts to the advantage of the 
giver, in improving the conditions in which he lives. 
Likewise, though it may be more remotely, what goes 
to foreign missions makes the world better, and so 
benefits the giver. 

Indeed, it is quite impossible in the very nature of 
the case to give without receiving a return. God has 
made a blessing inherent in the very quality of giving. 

" It is twice blessed ; 
It blesses him that gives and him that takes." 

The president of one of the great financial institu- 
tions of New York saw a ragged bootblack drop a coin 
into the tin cup of a blind beggar on Wall Street one 
December day; it was probably the price of the boy's 
lunch. The banker who was looking on followed the 
boy. " Ragged and dirty as he was," said he, " I 
could have taken him in my arms and hugged him." 
He did something better for him. He took a personal 
interest in him and employed him. To-day there is no 
brighter, better dressed, or more industrious office boy 
in that city. What the man gave came back more 
than a hundred fold. 

" There is no true alms which the hand can hold ; 
He gives nothing but worthless gold 



. 



GIVING 103 

Who gives from a sense of duty. 

But he who gives but a slender mite, 

And gives to that which is out of sight, 

The thread of the all-sustaining beauty 

Which runs through all and doth all unite, 

The hand cannot grasp the whole of his alms. 

The heart outstretches its eager palms. 

For a god goes with it and makes it store 

To the soul that was starving in darkness before." 

Along with that may be put the Oriental story of an 
Indian ascetic, told by Rabindranath Tagore. A 
Hindu devotee, begging by the wayside, saw the king 
coming. Looking for rich largess he was about to 
present his begging bowl when the king in jest antici- 
pated him, and holding out his own hand for a gift 
said, " What hast thou to give to me? " The beggar 
picked out the least, tiniest grain of corn and gave it 
to the king. That night, on pouring out the contents 
of his bag, the beggar found one grain of pure gold, 
just the size of the grain of corn he had given the king. 
" I bitterly wept,'' said the beggar afterward, " and 
wished that I had had the heart to give thee my all, 
my king." 

Giving is much more than a duty ; it is a joyful privi- 
lege. To have a part with God in the plans for re- 
deeming the world; to project one's life, near and far, 
at will; to bring help and blessing into the lives of 
others — all this becomes possible to the giver. " An 
ordinary contribution box," as Dr. James S. Dennis 
used to say, '' has become an instrument by which the 
contributor, as he sits in his pew, can touch every 



104 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

continent and do a work for Christ where his own 
footsteps can never tread.'* 

Motive Not Sequel Determines. That which dis- 
tinguishes giving from all other forms of expenditure 
is the motive. It is not so much what follows after 
the giving, but that which goes before. The test is, 
not whether the gift brought a return, but whether the 
giver sought a return. Was it of free will ? Here the 
contribution to the church is on quite a different foot- 
ing from that to the state. A man pays taxes to the 
state, knowing full well that he will receive a full 
equivalent in protection of life and property, in the 
education of his children, and in public utilities. If he 
have a truly Christian conception of citizenship and of 
his obligation for the use of his possessions, he will 
count it a privilege to bear his full share of the cost of 
government, national and local. But it is not a matter 
of choice. Whether he will or not he must pay what- 
ever tax the state imposes or he will pay the 
penalty. 

The Supreme Result. Best of all, giving brings 
joy to the heart of God. The chief end of giving is 
not the good it does, nor is it even the reflex effect on 
the character of the giver, but the glory it brings to 
God. As Paul puts it in his second letter to the 
church at Corinth (2 Cor. 9. 11, 12, Weymouth ver- 
sion), " May you be abundantly enriched so as to show 
every liberality, such as through our instrumentality 
brings thanksgiving to God. For the service rendered 
in this sacred gift not only helps to relieve the wants 



GIVING 105 

of God's people, but it is also rich in its results in 
awakening a chorus of thanksgiving to God." 

Giving Defined. What, then, is true giving of 
money? It is the unselfish outpouring of oneself 
in substance. It is the voluntary bestowing of one's 
own possessions, expecting nothing in return. With 
the gift goes one's own good-will, a part of one's very 
self. 

To What to Give. It is necessary to discriminate 
in determining the objects to which to give, so as to 
make the gift accomplish the best result possible. This 
entails upon the giver the responsibility of investigat- 
ing. The easy way — aye, the lazy way — would, no 
doubt, be to relegate this responsibility to those who 
may be supposed to know better than the individual. 
Indeed, there are those who urge that the right way 
is to turn one's gifts *Mnto the storehouse" (Mai. 
3. 10). This they take to mean the local church or- 
ganization, which for the purpose is assumed to be 
analagous to the treasury department of the ancient 
Jewish state. If this course were followed, the giver 
would forfeit the chief benefit to be derived, in the 
grace which only giving gives, and which it gives only 
to those who administer their trust intelligently and 
conscientiously as partners of their absent Partner. 
The very fact that one may be at a loss to know where 
the needs are greatest and how most wisely to dis- 
tribute his gifts involves the necessity of the giver in- 
forming himself. It is just here that the process of 
education is necessitated. Let a man first face the 



io6 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

fact of his own ignorance; then let him proceed to 
learn the facts which will obviate that ignorance. This 
is involved necessarily in his stewardship. It was for 
this very purpose, in part, that he was entrusted with 
money, so that in the very giving of it the giver may 
himself grow in the grace and in the knowledge of his 
Lord. He has no right to evade that responsibility, 
relegating it to any other. 

Principle of Selection. In selecting the objects, 
then, or the classes of objects to which one should 
give, our Lord himself furnishes the guiding prin- 
ciples. " First the Kingdom." And since the church 
of Christ is the divinely ordained agency for extending 
the Kingdom through all the earth, the very first object 
on the list should be the church itself. This, of course, 
will include more than its support, locally ; it includes, 
likewise, the entire range of the missionary and 
benevolent interests of the church at large. 

Then come the claims of the community, with its 
varied philanthropic and civic interests — interdenomi- 
national Christian associations, hospitals, organized 
charity. 

" The poor," as our Lord reminds us, " ye have 
always with you" (John 12. 8). Most of us will 
have such dependent ones within the circle of our own 
family connection. 

There are special needs that arise from time to time, 
such as the world war and all that it involves — the Red 
Cross, the Red Triangle, and kindred agencies for the 
benefit of the army and navy. 



GIVING 107 

How to Give. None need be at any loss for direc- 
tions as to how to give, seeing that the Scriptures are 
so explicit as to this. We are to give : 

1. Unostentatiously — *' Let not thy left hand know 
what thy right hand doeth " (Matt. 6. 3). 

2. Cheerfully — " Let each man do according as he 
hath purposed in his heart; not grudgingly, or of ne- 
cessity, for the Lord loveth a cheerful giver " — liter- 
ally a hilarious or gleeful giver (2 Cor. 9. 7). 

3. Liberally — " The liberal soul shall be made fat " 
(Prov. II. 25). 

4. Sacrificially — " Neither will I offer burnt-offer- 
ings unto Jehovah my God which cost me nothing" 
(2 Sam. 24. 24). 

5. Systematically and proportionately — '' Upon the 
first day of the week let each one of you lay by him 
in store, as he may prosper (i Cor. 16. 2). 

The distinction between giving systematically and 
giving proportionately is a marked one. An old 
farmer in the Middle West, who had been taught in 
early childhood to give to the tune of " Hear the pen- 
nies dropping " and had kept up the habit religiously 
even to the present day, found himself at church on a 
recent Sunday in the dilemma of having no ^' penny " 
in his pocket, in fact nothing less than a nickel. At 
length he hit upon a way out of the difficulty; when the 
plate was passed, depositing his nickel he was proceed- 
ing to take off four cents, when the plate was hurriedly 
withdrawn. " Never mind," he consoled himself, " I 
can get square." And for four Sundays he put noth- 
ing on the plate. Yet he was a systematic contributor. 



io8 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

How far removed is such a spirit from that of the 
poor Bulu Christians, of West Africa, just emerging 
from the darkness and as yet only in the gray dawn of 
spiritual enlightenment. In a village to which a mis- 
sionary had been called for the burial of a Christian 
woman he noticed that when the body was being pre- 
pared for the grave something was put into her hand. 
Finding that it was a piece of money, he asked why it 
was put there. " To show to God that she was a 
giver," was the prompt reply. 

A man may make the giving of money a mighty 
means of grace to himself as well as of personal service 
to others. Giving makes the prayer-life more real and 
practical. A manufacturer in England on whom I 
once called to ask him to give for work in India, after 
hearing the facts stated, asked to be excused for a 
little. Withdrawing into an inner room, he laid the 
matter before the Chief Partner; then he waited for 
the wireless message which should guide his decision. 
When he came out and drew a generous check, I could 
not but realize that I had discovered the secret of the 
success of one of the greatest commercial concerns in 
Great Britain. 

He who puts part of himself into his gift enhances 
its value many fold. 

" Not what we give but what we share, 
For the gift without the giver is bare." 

The Unspeakable Gift. No amount of money 
given can possibly take the place of giving oneself. 



GIVING 109 

" First they gave their own selves " (2 Cor. 8. 5) was 
the highest encomium that could possibly have been 
paid to the early Macedonian Christians. They fol- 
lowed closely in the footsteps of their Master. 

" Who giveth himself with his alms feeds three, 
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me." 

Probably Jesus never had a coin to give. He seems 
to have converted every asset into the form of per- 
sonal service. So completely had he mastered the 
mechanics of living, that he was not encumbered with 
any surplus of " things." So unerringly did he steer 
the middle course between " the cares of the world " 
and " the deceitfulness of riches " as to perfectly at- 
tain " the simple life." " Having food and covering," 
he was therewith content. He left behind not a single 
material thing except only the seamless robe and the 
other garments which the Roman soldiers appropriated 
at the cross. " He carved no statue, painted no pic- 
ture, wrote no poem, composed no song, fashioned no 
ornament, built no edifice, founded no city, erected no 
triumphal arch; yet he stands in history as the peer- 
less Prince of givers." He gave that which was price- 
less — '' the unspeakable gift " — himself. 

According as one learns this great central lesson of 
life in giving, he becomes a true philanthropist, giving 
himself with his gifts, or else a mere patronizer, seek- 
ing credit or advantage for himself. 



no MONEY THE ACID TEST 

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION 

V. Giving 

Aim : To show that according to the spirit in which a man gives, 

he receives the blessing of the philanthropist in joy, 

or the self-satisfaction of the patroniser. 

Questions Suggested by the Chapter 

How may we get some conception of God's capacity for 
giving? 

What is his purpose in teaching men to give? 

How does giving transform the giver? 

Is giving optional? 

Is that giving for which a full equivalent is received? 

Can what is spent on one's family (as in educating children for 
Christian work) be properly classed as giving? 

How can we draw a line to distinguish where spending ends 
and giving begins? 

What constitutes real giving? Write out your own definition 
of giving. 

What are some of the results to the giver? 

How may we distinguish what precedes giving from what 
follows it? 

How does our giving affect God? 

How can one best determine to what objects to give? 

What directions for giving do the Scriptures suggest? 

Distinguish between giving systematically and giving propor- 
tionately. 

How far may promise of material benefit (properly be used as 
an inducement for giving? 

What is the highest type of giving? To what extent am I 
giving myself with my gifts? How far are my possessions being 
converted into personality? 

To what extent is my giving sacrificial? 



GIVING III 

Problems from Life 

I. One bleak Christmas eve a Yale student, spending his 
vacation in settlement work in the lower end of New York City, 
found a German widow woman in a cheerless attic tenement, 
with three little daughters down with typhoid fever, without 
fuel or food or medical attention. He got fuel and made a fire, 
brought food and a doctor. One of the children died; the other 
two recovered. The woman came to the Neighborhood House, 
then to the church, then to Christ. Hearing of the famine in 
India, she made up her mind to show her gratitude by taking 
up the support of one or more Indian famine waifs in memory 
of the little girl whom she had lost. She was earning her living 
and supporting her family by scrubbing floors at night in a great 
office building in the neighborhood. Out of her hard-earned 
wages, she began to set aside a dollar and a half a week, and 
found that she was able thus to take care of four famine 
waifs. She also began to interest herself in those about her in 
the neighborhood who were in poorer circumstances than herself. 
On the following Christmas eve, when I went to the new rooms 
to which she had moved from her attic tenement, I found that 
she had papered them with her own hands and had put in a baby 
organ, on which the children were learning to play. She gath- 
ered together a group of poor children for a Christmas party 
and got her fellow scrub-women to join in providing for the 
treat. Out of the new-born love for her Savior, she soon had 
learned the great lesson of Christian giving. 

How do you account for this woman's love reaching so far to 
express itself in giving? 

II. A pastor, his wife, and their small son, all of them giving 
proportionately, contribute as much for benevolence through 
their church as all the other 497 members combined. Of eight 
elders, only four give for benevolence, aggregating forty cents 
a week; of nine trustees, only one gives for benevolence, and 
he but five cents a week. 

If you were the pastor of that church, what course would 
you adopt? 

III. Among the simple-hearted Christians of the western 
coast of Africa the custom is to celebrate the birth of Christ, 



112 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

Mot by exchanging gifts with one another, but by presenting their 
choicest offerings to the church, Christmas day, as the proces- 
sion filed down the aisle to the altar, bringing offerings of all 
sorts — a bunch of wild flowers, garden vegetables, small copper 
coins — the missionary noticed a poor girl who had recently 
been redeemed from the unspeakable degradation of raw pagan- 
ism draw from under her ragged dress a piece of silver worth 
about a dollar. Amazed, he thought that she could not have 
come by it honestly, and was at first inclined to refuse to receive 
it. But, taking is so as to avoid attracting attention to her, he 
afterward sought her out in the crowd and asked for an explana- 
tion. Then very simply she told him that, having nothing worthy 
to offer her new-found Savior, she had gone to a neighboring 
plantation and there had bound herself as a slave in return for 
this piece of silver. She was literally laying down her life at 
the feet of her Lord. 

How can you in your circumstances best express the spirit 
shown by this African girl? 



VI 

PROPORTIONING 

" To have is to owe, not to own." 



Honor Jehovah with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of 
all thine increase; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and 
thy vats shall overflow with new wine (Prov. 3.9). 

Ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone 
the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith; 
but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other 
undone (Matt. 23.23). 

Every man shall give as he is able (Deut. 16. 17). 

Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by 
him in store, as he may prosper (i Cor. 16.2). 



VI 
PROPORTIONING 

Clew to a Maze. In a matter of such vital im- 
portance as the training of mankind into unselfishness, 
through giving, is it conceivable that God would have 
no definite plan ? Would he have been likely to leave 
it to the haphazard of human choice, to determine 
whether or not offerings were to be made an integral 
part of worship; and, if so, on what basis? Going 
back to the Book of Beginnings, which contains the 
embryos of the institutions of the race, we find there 
the first trace of giving in human history : " In process 
of time at the end of the days (evidently a cycle of 
days, or when the Sabbath came around) it came to 
pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an 
offering unto Jehovah. And Abel, he also brought of 
the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof " 
(Gen. 4.3.4). 

That these two men, so diametrically different in 
disposition, should have come at the same time to the 
same place each with an offering, could not have been 
without design, indicating a divine appointment, an 
institution, a plan. Meager though the record is, it 
contains a clew to the solution of our problem. In 

115 



ii5 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

Tertullian's rendering of the context, in his Answer 
to the Jezi'Sj chapter V, the record runs thus : '" God 
had respect unto Abel and his gifts, but unto Cain and 
his gifts he had not respect. And God said unto Cain, 
' Why is thy countenance fallen ? Hast thou not 
sinned, if thou offerest aright but dost not diznde 
aright F Hold thy peace. For unto thee (shall) the 
conversion (be), and he shall lord it over thee *' (Gen. 

4.4-7). 

Upon that epoch-marking event the writer of the 

Epistle to the Hebrews makes this inspired comment : 

" By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent 

(more abundant) sacrifice than Cain " (Heb. 11. 4). 

Wherein, then, consists the ''' excellence " of true 
offerings? Is it in measuring up to a mathematical 
proportion, the giving of a certain fixed fraction of 
income, prescribed of God for all men under all cir- 
cumstances? Men have long debated the moot ques- 
tion, " Is the tithe obligatory upon the Christian under 
the New Covenant, as it was upon the Hebrew under 
the Old? " Upon this issue devoted disciples continue 
to differ. It is no doubt due to this disagreement more 
than to any other cause, that there has been such tedi- 
ously slow progress in extending the practise of pro- 
portionate giving throughout the church at large. 

"A Universal Obligation/' Say Some. "The 
tithe is one of God's twin laws," says one set of 
people, " eternal, immutable, unchangeable as the Sab- 
bath itself — one tenth of man's money, as well as 
one seventh of man's time, is God's in a peculiar sense. 



PROPORTIONING 117' 

Both of these laws are as old as the race, for man's; 
benefit; reaffirmed (not enacted) in the Mosaic Law;, 
endorsed by Jesus; taught by the Apostles and ob- 
served for centuries in the Christian church." ^ 

" Legalistic," Say Others. " Not so," answers the 
other. '* Tithing is legalistic. I lay down no propor- 
tion of tenths, thirds, or halves; for Christ has not 
done so. Under the Levitical Law everything was de- 
manded by weight, number, and measure. But it is 
not so under the more free and generous and spiritual 
dispensation of the gospel. Christ has trusted his cause 
to our love, our honor, our sense of gratitude. Under 
the legal dispensation, all things taken into account, a 
Jew's religion would have cost him little less than half 
his income. And yet some Christians talk of a tenth 
of theirs. I do not say how much is enough for poorer 
Christians, but I am sure that for rich ones this is a 
very paltry sum to carry to him who gave all for 
them." ^ 

Even Leaders in Doubt. Thus, though not to anyr 
such degree or with such disastrous results as in the* 
case of Cain and Abel of old, good men still take up> 
attitudes diametrically different as to this debatable 
point. A fog envelops the subject and many are 
puzzled. Recently the veteran secretary of a board of 
foreign missions, a man of ripe Christian experience, 
confessed to me that he had been all his life long in 

Layman," God's Twin Laws. 
*John Angell James, Christian Stewardship (Gold Prize 
Essay). 



ii8 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

doubt as to what his duty was in the matter of tithing. 
If that is the case with wise leaders such as he, what 
can be expected of the rank and file? When doctors 
differ thus, no wonder that " the man in the street " is 
perplexed. When once those who should take the lead 
shall have searched the Scriptures and come to com- 
mon ground as to the fundamental principle of pro- 
portionate giving, the Adversary can no longer succeed 
in his favorite tactics of hindering the work of the 
Kingdom by dividing the King's workers. Not that 
men are disposed to quibble over this matter as a mere 
academic question for discussion. Many who sincerely 
desire to know the truth are still utterly at a loss. Even 
as this is written comes a letter from India, written by 
one who has turned aside from more lucrative pursuits 
to devote his life to the Christianizing of his own be- 
loved land, and who is looked up to as in a premier 
position of leadership among Indian Christians. He 
writes : 



" I am not so much troubled as to how much or what propor- 
tion of one's income should be given systematically for Christ's 
work. William Carey gave out of his salary of fifteen hundred 
rupees ($500) a month all but fifty rupees, on which he lived. 
If that was right and God accepted the gift, then if Carey had 
received only fifty-one rupees and given only one rupee, God 
would have been no less pleased with Carey, for he knew 
Carey's heart. If an Indian Christian graduate who could earn, 
say, one hundred rupees a month or more, is willing to serve 
the church for eighty rupees a month, does he not give up twenty 
rupees a month for God? And will God demand eight rupees 
out of his eighty rupees income to satisfy the letter of the law 
of the tithe? I do not think so. Christianity is not Judaism. 



PROPORTIONING 119 

Any one who really loves the Lord and truly prays for the com- 
ing of his Kingdom, will gladly give all that he possibly can 
give." 

My friend could have made his point even more 
strongly had he referred to some of his fellows who 
have joined the order of '' Servants of India " and 
have gone forth to preach without any salary what- 
ever. 

William Carey did not always have an income of 
$7,500 a year, as he did in the latter part of his life 
when serving the East India Company as Professor of 
Sanskrit in Fort William College, Calcutta. When he 
was a cobbler and afterward a humble preacher, in 
England, earning only 100 pounds (the equivalent of 
1,500 rupees a year, instead of 1,500 rupees a month), 
he gave away half of it. Is it not safe to conclude, 
that, had he received only 5 1 rupees a month, he would 
have managed to give away at least one tenth of it? 
And undoubtedly he would have found, what so many 
others have discovered who have taken God at his 
word, that, after first of all dedicating a portion to the 
Lord, he could better afford to live and to live better 
on the remainder than by using the whole for his own 
living. 

Money but a Part of Life. It is quite true, that 
not all giving can be measured in terms of money. 
What is given up may actually count for much more 
than what is given. Some of life's richest assets can 
never be converted into cash at all. They could not 
possibly be tithed, though they are more precious than 



120 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

pure gold. There are forms other and better, too, 
than that of money into which Hfe may be converted 
and in which it may be conserved and given to God. 
Here, for instance, is one who has spent all his life 
as a missionary in the coal-fields of Pennsylvania, 
never receiving a salary of more than $600, often less. 
Yet during his forty-two years of service he took into 
his own home forty young men and fitted them for 
college; to-day they fill places of leadership as min- 
isters at home and on the foreign mission fields, as 
physicians and lawyers. One of them is a college 
president. Could this faithful servant's account be 
reduced to figures in a cash-book or balanced on the 
basis of a tenth due? 

Some men, while amassing money, succeed in them- 
selves transmuting their money into terms of life. 
Others, foregoing the making of money beyond the 
mere requirements of a modest living, turn their main 
energies, instead, into channels of service for others. 
Some years ago, in celebrating the completion of fifty 
years' service by Richard C. Morse, as General Secre- 
tary of the International Committee of the Young 
Men's Christian Association, Mr. Cleveland H. Dodge 
addressed Mr. Morse in these words: '"^ If you had 
used your brains as John D. Rockefeller did, you, too, 
might have amassed $149,000,000, but you are richer 
as you are." 

How much, do you suppose, our Lord's tithes totaled 
in any of those eventful years of tireless service of 
which he said, '' The Son of man hath not where to 



PROPORTIONING 121 

lay his head " ? What did his contributions in money 
amount to at the Nazareth synagog ? Or for the sup- 
port of " the church which he purchased with his own 
blood " (Acts 20. 28) ? When the tax collector came 
around, he had not a single coin on hand; "his only 
purse was the mouth of a fish" (Matt. 17.27). 
When at the last the soldiers took possession of his 
garments and cast lots for his seamless robe (John 
19. 2^), how much money did they find? 

A Distinction. How, then, can life possibly be 
summed up in dollars and cents, or parceled out into 
tenths or any other fractions? But whether it be in 
material form or immaterial, all of life is alike a trust 
which the faithful steward will administer with a due 
sense of proportion. Our Lord very explicitly points 
out that in a very real sense there are " things that are 
God's," and no less are there other *' things that are 
Caesar's" (Matt. 22. 21). To say that all things are 
God's, including " Csesar " and income tax and all, is 
but to raise dust and indulge in pious cant. While not 
falling into the fallacy of dividing life into air-tight 
compartments of " sacred " and " secular," let no one 
close his eyes to the fact that there is a clear-cut dis- 
tinction to be preserved as to the part of a man's life 
— of his money as well as his time — that is to be set 
apart " unto the Lord." There is a true distinction to 
be observed between the " sacred " and the " secular.'^ 
While the sacred should permeate the whole, yet 
all life cannot possibly be reduced to one levels 
though some men would have it so. All days are not 



122 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

the same ; the Lord's Day is set apart, as the Sabbath 
was of old, by sanctions of religion for rest and wor- 
ship in a way quite different from other days. All 
money is not to be treated in the same way; a certain 
portion is to be set apart " unto the Lord," and this 
should influence the disposing of all the remainder. 
This is made unmistakably clear throughout the 
Scriptures. 

God's Kindergarten Method. The Bible furnishes 
the record of a progressive revelation of the will of 
God with reference to the things of men and of the 
revolution wrought hereby through the Holy Spirit 
within the souls of men. He with whom " a thousand 
years are as one day," has taken time to slowly train 
the race, leading mankind up by almost imperceptible 
gradations toward the ultimate standard. Growth in 
the grace of giving seems to have been very like the 
leading of a little child up a pair of stairs. 

With Pagan Peoples. The custom of dedicating 
religiously a tenth by way of acknowledgment of the 
divine right of ownership was common in ancient 
pagan nations centuries before Moses and even before 
Abraham. Records now accessible, some of which 
date back to 3800 B.C., leave no doubt that such was 
the case in Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, Babylonia, India, 
and China. In most cases a part at least of the por- 
tion presented in the pagan temple found its way to the 
palace. The state and religion seem to have com- 
mingled from the earliest time, especially where money 
was involved. 



PROPORTIONING 123 

Among the Patriarchs. In the time of the Pa- 
triarchs, Abraham carried the custom over from 
Chaldea to Palestine and paid tithes to Melchizedek, 
" king of Salem . . . priest of God Most High, pos- 
sessor of heaven and earth " (Gen. 14. 18, 19). 

Jacob, in turn, following in the footsteps of his 
grandfather, devoted a tenth to God (Gen. 28. 22) — 
or at least under stress of somewhat trying circum- 
stances he vowed he would do so; further than that 
the record does not run. 

In the Hebrew Nation. When the Hebrews be- 
came a nation, the custom of the tithe was applied to 
the purposes of their religion and provided for in the 
statutes of their Ceremonial Law. " Each head of a 
family among the Jews was bound by direct enactment 
to give a tenth of all his yearly increase to the support 
of the ministering tribe of Levi. He was obliged to 
pay a second tithe for the support of the feasts; a 
third tenth once in three years for the poor; and in 
addition there were trespass offerings, long and costly 
journeys to the temple, and sundry other religious 
charges, all imposed by divine sanction, besides the 
free-will offerings. Taking all these items, it is un- 
doubted that among the Jews every head of a family 
was under religious obligation to give away at least 
one fifth, perhaps as much as a third, of his yearly 
income." ^ 

What was thus paid to the temple under theocracy 
includes what under a democracy is paid to the state 

* The Duty of Giving Away, William Arthur. 



124 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

in taxes, as well as what goes to the church for its 
support. 

How long this Mosaic order was carried out, we do 
not know. Samuel in his protest against Israel's ask- 
ing for a king, declares that " he will take the tenth of 
your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his 
officers, and to his servants " ; also " he will take the 
tenth of your flocks : and ye shall be his servants " ( i 
Sam. 8. 15-17). It is likely that the sacred use of the 
tithe was early perverted under the kings. We hear 
no more of the system until the time of Hezekiah. 
Gradually the nation backslid from its obligation until 
the prophets raised their voices in stern protest; " Ye 
have robbed me," declares Malachi, " in tithes and 
offerings" (Mai. 3.8).^ 

" In the Days of His Flesh." In the New Testa- 
ment little reference is made to the tithe. Rising into 
its higher altitudes and clearer atmosphere, we can 
catch only a few faint echoes of that old order which 
had prevailed in the narrow valley left behind. One 
of these passages is the word of condemnation spoken 
by our Lord at the Pharisee's dinner-table (Matt. 
23. 23), " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
crites ! For ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and 
have left undone the weightier matters of the law, 
justice, and mercy, and faith; but these ye ought to 
have done, and not to have left the other undone." 
Or, as Luke reports it, " Ye tithe mint and rue and 

* See W. Henry Lansdell, The Sacred Tenth; E. B. Stewart, 

The Tithe. 



PROPORTIONING 125 

every herb, and pass over justice and the love of God." 
The reference to tithing appears to be incidental; our 
Lord seems to have selected that which is secondary 
in importance and passing away with the old order, 
to compare or rather contrast with it the infinitely 
weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, faith — 
the love of God. For the Jew who rested in the Law 
(Rom. 2. 17) and made his boast in it, there could be 
no question that he " ought " to obey its every require- 
ment ; but does this allusion of our Lord to the Jewish 
obligation constitute a sufficient basis on which to build 
a financial system for all those who, being justified by 
God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus, have become heirs of the free grace of the 
gospel ? 

Those who hold that one tenth of all income is 
inhibited by immutable law, even as one seventh of 
time, should explain why the former is not incorpo- 
rated in the Decalog, as is the latter. Why is it that 
observance of the Sabbath is enjoined as a part of 
the fundamental moral law, while the tithe is found 
in the ceremonial law (Lev. 27. 33) ? 

The solitary figure of a tither appearing on the 
pages of the New Testament is the Pharisee who 
" prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I 
am not as the rest of men, ... I give tithes of all 
that I get " (Luke 18. 11, 12). 

Paul makes no mention at all of the tithe in any of 
his epistles, but, instead, he adopts the ancient prin- 
ciple, "Every man shall give as he is able" (Deut. 



126 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

i6. I/), and embodies it in the Silver Rule of the 
Christian church, " Let each one of you lay by him in 
store, as he may prosper " (i Cor. i6. 2). 

The only other reference to the tithe in the New 
Testament is in the seventh chapter of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews, where the writer, arguing that the priest- 
hood of Christ is of a higher order than that of Levi, 
cites as proof the fact that Levi, " yet in the loins of 
his father Abraham," though himself entitled to re- 
ceive tithes, nevertheless paid tithes to that mysterious 
priest-king of Salem, Melchizedek, the prototype of 
Christ. Even in that distant day the index-finger 
pointed the way to him at whose feet the Wise-men 
were later to lay their gold and frankincense and 
myrrh. It was not so much, however, to the tithe as 
to the King that attention is here turned. He it is 
who is worthy to receive the homage of all true givers. 
The crucial test of the judgment day, indeed, is to 
be, whether or not what we have given, in either spirit- 
ual or material form, has been "unto me" (Matt. 
25.40). In that day it will not be a question of 
amount or of proportion, so much as of motive and 
spirit. And the same is the case to-day. 

It was to be expected that, in place of the old system 
which had served the purpose of the kindergarten, 
there would be substituted under the New Covenant 
something larger, more vital, more elastic than the 
tithe. In pagan and patriarchal times a tenth had 
been the standard. Under the Mosaic system this had 
been raised to two tenths and even more, while a vol- 



PROPORTIONING 127 

untary element had been introduced by explicit pro- 
vision for various offerings. With the introduction of 
the gospel, it is provided that " all " shall come under 
the sway of Christ. '' Whosoever he be of you that 
renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be my dis- 
ciple" (Luke 14. 33). The test apphed to the young 
ruler (Mark 10.21) is the standard for all who will 
follow Christ — "Go, sell whatsoever thou hast; give; 
come, take, follow me, and thou shalt have." His pos- 
sessions might still have been left in his hands, but to 
be henceforth held in trust for another, whose owner- 
ship in it must in common honesty be acknowledged; 
and if acknowledged, he would enter into partnership 
with the young ruler, as the Junior Partner in the 
handling of the property, as well as of all of his 
life. 

A Nev^ Principle. The divine multiplication table 
does not follow the rule of human arithmetic. Accord- 
ing to God's directions, we multiply as well as add by 
subtracting : " There is that scattereth, and increaseth 
yet more; and there is that withholdeth more than is 
meet, but it tendeth only to want" (Prov. 11.24). 
But these thoughts of God are so diametrically differ- 
ent from man's thoughts concerning what he has in 
his hands that only by a long patient process could he 
be brought to God's standard of giving. Nothing 
short of a revolution would suffice to bring man to the 
point of voluntarily parting with his holdings. It 
was necessary that the struggle for divine sovereignty 
over all life, including man's possessions, should be 



128 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

carried on through the centuries until the victory over 
selfishness is fully won. 

When we look into the record of the gospel to see 
these principles applied, we find progressive stages of 
consecration, corresponding in some measure with the 
progressive stages of revelation of God's will as to 
stewardship. In these typical instances, can be traced 
the advance of the Christian consciousness to the 
standard of the New Law of the Christ life : 

" As he may prosper " — as enjoined by Paul ( i 
Cor. i6. 2). 

" To their power and beyond '' — as practised by 
Christians of Macedonia (2 Cor. 8. 1-3). 

" Half of my goods " — as in the case of Zacchaeus 
(Luke 19. 8). 

" All her living " — as with the widow whom our 
Lord immortalized (Mark 12.41-44). 

The standard set up by our Lord, as the indispen- 
sable condition of discipleship, is nothing short of this : 
" Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that 
he hath, he cannot be my disciple " (Luke 14. 33). It 
was because the young ruler failed to meet this test 
that he went away sorrowful (Mark 10. 22). Not so, 
Barnabas, being " a Levite (Levi once again paying 
tithes to Melchizedek!) . . . having a field, sold it, and 
brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet " 
(Acts 4. 36). 

Superseding the Old. While that which is acci- 
dental is temporary, whatever is of the essence is abid- 
ing. When once the grace of giving is established in 



PROPORTIONING 129 

the human consciousness, the scaffolding of statutes 
and ordinances is removed. What, then, are the es- 
sential and eternal elements inherent in Christian stew- 
ardship? Looking back over the age-long education 
of the race, these principles appear in God's plan of 
developing the grace of giving in the hearts of his 
children : 

1. That giving is ordained to be an integral part of 
worship, in acknowledgment of God's sovereign owner- 
ship. 

2. That, in order to guard against insincerity of con- 
secration and indefiniteness as to the amount, a definite 
portion is to be devoted to the Lord, as the first-fruits 
of all increase. 

3. That, instead of arbitrarily fixing a uniform pro- 
portion for all under all circumstances, God gives each 
of his children the responsibility of determining the 
separated portion in the light of intelligence, conscience, 
and the promptings of love. 

4. That the love of Christ constrains the true Chris- 
tian to adopt a standard of giving higher than that of 
pagan or patriarch or Hebrew under the law. 

5. That, in determining the proportion to give, there 
should be due regard to the requirements of simple 
wholesome living and also of reasonable saving to meet 
future obligations; and out of the remainder the giving 
portion should be supplemented. 

6. That those who thus honor God by generous giving 
may confidently count upon blessing here and now, and 
as their income increases the proportion set apart for 
giving should steadily increase. 



130 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

According as a man follows or fails to follow the 
divine principles in determining the proportion to give, 
as an offering unto God, he becomes in reality a true 
partner of Christ, or a mere legalist, or, it may be, a 
defaulter, robbing God. 

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION 

VI. Proportioning 

Aim : To show that according as one proportions his outlay 

with due regard to his giving as well as to his living and 

saving, he proves himself to be a true partner 

with Christ or only a legalist. 

Questions Suggested by the Chapter 

What is the earliest evidence as to the place God purposes to 
have giving occupy in worship? 

What opposite positions are taken as to the obligation to tithe 
under the New Dispensation? 

What the effect of differing as to this question? 

How can life assets other than those which can be converted 
into money be tithed? 

How can money that is devoted to the Lord be distinguished 
from other funds? 

Trace the progressive steps by which the race has been led 
up to higher conceptions of giving. 

How do conditions under a Christian democracy differ from 
those under the Hebrew theocracy? 

What difference, if any, between the basis of the tithe and 
that of the Sabbath? 

What place has tithing in the New Testament ? 

How does obligation under the New Covenant compare with 
that under the Old? 

What degrees of growth in the grace of giving appear in the 
New Testament? 



PROPORTIONING 131 

How do you interpret the inclusive principle which Jesus laid 
down for his disciples as to their possessions? 

How does what I am receiving from God compare with the 
income of the men of former times who devoted one tenth or 
more? 

If I do not give as much as they, what is the inference? 

How can I arrive at a true proportion for my giving? 

If no uniform proportion is fixed, how may one safeguard 
against indefiniteness and insincerity of consecration? 

What advantage is there to the giver in himself determining 
the application of what he gives through the church? 

How can we regulate the proportion applied to church support 
and benevolences respectively? 

How should we distribute the benevolence portion? 

Is the proportion a just one between my income and my 
expenditure? Between my expenditure, my saving, and my 
giving? 

What conclusions do you draw from the Scripture teaching 
on the subject? 

Problems from Life 

I. In a group of believers in Brazil was a woman who had 
been deserted by her husband because she served Christ. She 
had an aged mother and a little boy to support. They owned a 
few acres of sugar bottom, a few orange trees, and had the 
right to plant a patch of corn and beans at any place within five 
miles of the dry uplands. She came shyly to tell her pastor that 
she had resolved to tithe her income. Being unable to work her 
sugar ground, she paid one half of the growing cane to the man 
who worked it and then one half of her share of the cane to the 
man who made it into sugar. She would not distil it into rum. 
The first year she refined her sugar, which, being reduced finally 
to the crop of an eighth of an acre, amounted to some 300 
pounds. She kept it by her until a little later, when she sold 
it to a man who came looking for sugar in her valley, where 
the only article for sale was rum. She rigorously tithed the corn 
and beans and the rice from a little of the swamp land by the 
brook on which she lived. When her oranges ripened, she re- 
solved to tithe them, on the plan of giving the first load she sold 



152 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

to the Lord. She sold twelve mule loads, the first and eleventh 
of which she gave as her tithe. At the end of her first year she 
handed to her pastor a larger sum of money for church support 
than any other member of the church ; and there were men 
in that church who were worth at least fifty thousand dollars. 
After several years, when the church edifice was completed, the 
pastor, who was the only one on earth who knew of her tithing, 
for curiosity summed up her various contributions and found 
that only two men had given more. When he said to her, " I 
am surprised that your tithe amounts to so much," she answered, 
" I am surprised to find that I have so much left to use for 
myself." 

What surprises you most in this woman's case? and can you 
discover similar cause for surprise in your own? 

II. A worked his way through college. Afterward sick- 
ness involved him in heavy doctors' bills, and he found himself 
in debt. But, being convinced that he should give to the Lord 
as much as a tenth, he treats this debt as taking precedence over 
every other. 

Do you think that he should clear off his debts to men before 
giving proportionately to God? 

III. A student in Princeton Theological Seminary, on being 
asked by another his plan of giving, repHed, " I have no plan, 
for I have no money." " But," insisted the other, " you cer- 
tainly ought to have a plan, or, when you become a pastor, you 
can't lead others to give." He added that, after carefully study- 
ing stewardship, he had himself determined to devote a tenth. 
The other student agreed to join him. Years have passed, and 
the latter bears this testimony : " When I decided to give a tenth, 
I had absolutely no income; and one tenth of nothing is just 
about the size of a cipher. But the next Sunday I was invited 
to preach for the first time, and was paid $12. After deducting 
the cost of my journey, I took out a tenth and put it aside as 
the Lord's money. From that day I have always had money 
to give. At times, my wife heartily concurring, we have found 
it possible to give as much as one fifth, and no other money 
has brought such satisfaction as that." 

How would you apply the principle of proportionate giving to 
one who has little or no income? 



VII 
ACCOUNTING 



Make your ofFerings according to your income, or the Lord 
may make your income according to your offerings." 



Books were opened; and another book was opened, which is 
the book of Hfe (Rev. 20. 12). 

Render the account of thy stewardship (Luke 16.2). 

Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's ; and unto God 
the things that are God's (Matt. 22.21). 

Render to all their dues (Rom. 13. 7). 

If ye have not been faithful in that which is another's, who 
will give you that which is your own (Luke 16. 12) ? 



VII 

ACCOUNTING 

Daniel Webster, when asked what was the greatest 
thought that had ever entered his mind, replied, " My 
accountability to Almighty God." " I believe," says 
Bishop Fowler, " that on the day of judgment, more 
people will stand condemned for the way they used 
their money than for any other one thing." 

A Higher Motive. True though that may be, yet 
it is not the main incentive for Christians to keep ac- 
count. We are not driven to it by the awful fear of 
punishment hereafter, but rather are we drawn to it 
by the joyful privilege of partnership here and now. 
What a tribute to the Christian is it, that he is trusted 
to determine the proportion of his giving! The state 
arbitrarily fixes the rate of our taxes and leaves no 
room for the exercise of free-will; on incomes it 
graduates the amount according to ability, as nearly 
as a scientific classification can determine. But the 
heavenly Father deals differently with his children. 
He lays down broad principles to guide them, but no 
hard and fast lines to limit them. He assumes the 
generosity of gratitude, the loyalty of love. Chris- 
tians are put on their honor in the exercise of steward- 
ship as to their possessions. 

135 



136 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

Essential to Account. How is it possible to dis- 
charge one's trust, whether it be looked upon as stew- 
ardship or partnership, unless one keeps an accurate 
account? Can one trust merely to memory without 
any record to recall what amount has been given, or to 
preserve a true sense of proportion between his per- 
sonal expenditure and that which is set apart " unto 
the Lord " ? When Malachi raised the question, 
" Will a man rob God? " (Mai. 3. 8), he might have 
pushed his inquiry further than to ask "Wherein?" 
He might also have asked " Wherefore? " Is not the 
reason, in many instances, ignorance rather than wil- 
fulness? Is it not the case that most people keep no 
account whatever of what they give? Do not most 
of those who keep no account imagine that they have 
given more than they have really given? And would 
not most of them, if they but knew how much they 
have actually given, wish to give more? It would 
almost seem as though a good many people mixed up 
in their minds the number of appeals made to them to 
give, with the number of times they have given. Some 
may be in the plight of Miss Midgeon in The Victory 
of Mary Christopher ^^ and for much the same reason. 
" A tenth indeed! " she said, " I think Mr. Randolph 
is perfectly morbid on the subject. Of course, I do 
not keep an account of how much I give; I'm not such 
a Pharisee as that; but I'm sure it is much more than 
a tenth. Indeed, I should not be surprised if I gave 
almost a twentieth ! " 
^ Harvey Reeves Calkins, The Victory of Mary Christopher. 



ACCOUNTING 137 

How is the smug self-complacency of contented 
ignorance to be broken through, so long as people 
deliberately shut their eyes to the facts? Is it due to 
laziness or lack of brains or wilfulness ? Are they to 
be left undisturbed in their ignorance — whether due 
to carelessness or wilfulness — until the day when 
" books are opened " (Rev. 20. 12) and all must stand 
before him whose eyes are " as a flame of fire " (Rev. 
I. 14), to give an account of the deeds done in the 
body? How much better to get one's cash-book ad- 
justed here on earth, as Zacchaeus did. One day when 
he met the Master and looked into those searching 
eyes, forthwith he began to submit his account for 
audit : " Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to 
the poor; and if I have wrongfully exacted aught of 
any man, I restore fourfold" (Luke 19.8). And 
Jesus instantly put his O.K. on Zacchaeus' account. 
What can be more truly a " book of life " than that 
in which a man does his bookkeeping, and strikes the 
balance between the income and outlay of his money? 
What so clearly reveals whether a life is self-centered 
as does a man's cash-book ? 

Perhaps the main reason why so many people fail 
to keep account with God is that they do not begin 
early enough. The time to learn that lesson is in child- 
hood. It will be easier to keep larger accounts later, 
if the practise is started when accounts are small. 
Why not include the subject of personal economics in 
the curriculum of every school? 

Dues Rather than Don'ts. An American mother 



138 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

has devised a system of credits which makes conduct 
a basis of constant earning, and at the same time trains 
the child in accounting. While developing character, 
a child at the same time can be acquiring capital. This 
is quite in accord with the Scriptural principle, that 
" godliness is profitable for . . . the life which now 
is " (i Tim. 4. 8). The plan permits the child to earn 
its own spending-money while it obviates the need of 
constant correction. It develops a sense of honor by 
requiring it to fill out its own report, censoring its 
own conduct. Thus it afiFords automatic training for 
conduct, and, likewise, for handling money and keep- 
ing accounts. Duties are assigned and credits allowed, 
as shown on the chart. 

For example, if the child has taken his bath, he puts 
down two points in the column for the day; if he has 
cleaned his teeth twice, two in the next line; or, if but 
once, one; so throughout the list of duties. The total 
number of points for the seven days is footed up at the 
end of the week. A perfect report should show 50 
points each day or 350 points for the week. If the 
child is to get 50 cents a week, divide the total by 
seven; if 25 cents a week, by fourteen; if 10 cents a 
week, by thirty-five. The divisor should be the same 
each week, as agreed upon between parent and child. 
The quotient, or result, shows the amount to be paid 
to the child, as the wreck's allowance. 

The figures suggested in the chart are graduated 
according to what habits have been found, from wide 
experience, to be most difficult to regulate in children 



ACCOUNTING i39 

generally. Items may be adapted to individual cases; 
some, no doubt, would wish to substitute religious 
duties for some of those given in the chart. A blank 
sheet should be given the child each Saturday night for 
keeping the record for the following week. 

If it is objected that " children should not expect 
to be paid for being good," it may be answered that 
it could not be otherwise according to the very consti- 
tution of God's government. " Virtue is its own 
reward." In the very nature of the case, sobriety and 
industry and integrity bring prosperity. *' He that 
gathereth by labor shall have increase" (Prov. 
13. ii). "In the house of the righteous is much 
treasure" (Prov. 15.6). Then why should not 
obedience to the laws of the family likewise be re- 
warded ? It may be thought that, an allowance being 
adopted for the child, forfeits for failures may be a 
wiser basis than premiums for duties done. But, 
whichever course is adopted, it is needful in either 
case that a faithful record be kept in order to insure 
just dealing. If the child himself is trained to keep 
the record, the sense of honor is developed and at the 
same time a life habit of system and accuracy is estab- 
lished. It is not enough, however, that income alone 
should be thus provided and regulated. The account- 
ing should cover outlay as well. If careful note is 
kept of money spent, there is an automatic check upon 
self-indulgence. 



140 



MONEY THE ACID TEST 





1 



• 








































r- 


5x 


^ 

^ 




4 


s 


(^ 


tSs 


V 


^ 


^ 


- 


rf^ 


*< 


A 


^ 


Q. 


^ 


^ 


^ 


^ 


^ 


^. 






^v 


05- 






iS 


S 


C^ 


c^ 


««. 


■^ 


c< 




<3> 


. va 


<^ 


"V 


•v 


<^ 


Ci 


r^ 


^ 


> 


'^ 






~«. 








u 


m 


r^ 


A 


- 


~s 


c< 




^ 


^ 


fV 


Q 


«^ 


^ 


lx> 


<::> 


c^ 


-3- 


■^ 


- 


; 


"». 






S 

u 


: 

e 


<^ 


- 


•^ 




r^ 




O 


^ 


o 


^ 


^ 


<^ 


Ic 


c^ 


t^ 


> 


(<^ 






- 


^ 
^ 




O 

r 

a 
»< 
O 


1 


1 


^ 


^ 


««. 


■V 


<^ 




o 


vi 


«J 


- 


o 


(^ 


'^ 


c^ 


<^ 


"r^ 


W) 








^ 

^ 




i 


^ 


<^ 




"s 


c^ 




'^ 


- 


- 






r- 


«0 


<^ 


A 


> 


»f^ 












a. 
E 

<3 


g 


s 

1 


^ 


- 


- 


- 


Q 




^ 


^ 


<^ 


•^ 




(^ 


O 


e 


r> 


" ti 


^ 












(0 

s 
> 


H 


• 
e 

I 


N 


N 


r* 


- 


« 


- 






n 


« 


« 


?< 


to 


« 


O 


« 


le 






« 






< 

1 


• 

ii 


03 
H 




j: 
Vi 

>• 
c 

a 

ea 
>. 
"S 

Q 


"a 

C 

« 
u 

I 

e 
a 


e 
i 

c 

a 


O 

e 

E 
§. 

at 


a 

e 
e 
e 
i 

o 

a 


"c 


■3 

e 
o 
O 
ca 

a 


2 

u 

e 
e 
« 

if 

.a 

^- 


"a 

E 

w 
c 

1 

£ 




3 
U 

K 


e 

8 

.= 

u 

c 

S 

•a 
a 
a 

at 


S 

e 

Si 

« 

2 
Q 


>. 

a 
i 
< 

1 


3 


u 
a 

s 




S 
1 

w 



o 

o 


e 
.e 
u 

n 

b 

c 

« 
c 


S 

Si 

bi 

u 
o 
o 
Q 

3 








t 



S 

cs 

"a 

Q 


at 

E 

es 
bi 

a 

e 
I 


• 

u 

e 

1 


■4 

> 

J 

3 





ACCOUNTING 141 

Facing the Facts. A certain pastor helps his 
young people to face the facts as to their spending 
and also to compare what they spend on themselves 
and what they give for others, by providing them with 
a card such as that on the following page : 

Making Out a Personal Balance Sheet. It is im- 
portant that all, older as well as younger, look squarely 
at the facts as to what they receive and what becomes 
of it. To many, a challenge to analyze income and 
outlay will come as a rather rude shock. They have 
never done such a thing or even thought of doing so. 
Some consider it too much bother. To others, the 
amount involved seems too small to take account of. 
In most cases, attention has never been called to the 
matter at all. Few realize how vitally character is 
affected by dealing conscientiously and accurately with 
the separated portion. A little while ago a retired 
business man accepted that challenge, as I threw it out 
in a conference of church leaders in which he had 
been arguing against the possibility of determining 
what one's " net income " is. When he had gone 
home, and from the stubs of his check-book figured 
out as nearly as he could what proportion his gifts the 
preceding year sustained to his '' net income," he at 
once signed up a declaration to give forty per cent, 
thereafter. 

Of a Bible class of forty men who were challenged 
to make out statements showing their receipts and ex- 
penditures for the preceding year, preparatory to de- 



142 



MONEY THE ACID TEST 



How I Use My Money 


This card is for your information. It is always well 


to know how one uses his money. A comparison is 


instructive. Opposite each item put the amount you 


spend, each week, as nearly as you can figure. Then 


total the columns and place the totals below. If you 


wish to find the percentage of your offerings, divide 


the "Total unto the Lord" by the Gross Total. If you 


care to return this card to the pastor, he will appre- 


ciate it. Please send it unsigned; he does not desire 


to know your income 


and disbursements. 




Expenditure for Week Ending 


...191.. 


Living Expenses 






Giving 






Board (or 






Church 






equivalent) 






Charities 






Clothing 












Medical 












Incidentals 












Self-Improvement 
Reading 






Total, "unto the 
Lord " 






Music 

Athletics 

Societies 






Percentage of 
whole income 






Pleasure 












Amusements 












Candy, etc. 
Entertaining 
Automobile 
Saving 






Received 

Earned myself 
Given to me 






Total, Personal 






Total Income 






Percentage of 












whole income 









ACCOUNTING 143 

termining the proportion they would give for the year 
following, seventy-five per cent, responded. They 
were to send these statements to their pastor, signed 
or unsigned, as they might prefer. They did so, and 
the following is a sample : 

ANALYSIS OF AN ACCOUNT 

Income 
Salary $3,120 

Disbursements 
I. Living Amount Total Per Cent. 

Food 

Groceries $364. 

Meat 72.80 

Milk, Butter, & Eggs . . . 142.88 

$579.68 .186 

Clothing 185. .059 

Light and Heat 160. .051 

House : Rent or Taxes, Telephone, 

Servant, Laundry, etc 254, .081 

Incidentals 

Carfare 85. 

Christmas ,^ 50. 

Sundry Presents 22. 

157. .050 

Wife's allowance 208. .066 

Medical 

Doctor 15. 

Druggist 25. 

Dentist 20. 

Operation 50. 

no. .035 

Recreation 

Vacation 50. 

Golf, etc 49. 

Amusements 15. 

114. .036 



144 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

Reading 

Daily papers $18.14 

Magazines 5. 

Religious periodicals 3.35 

$26.49 .009 



II. Saving 

Interest $104. 

Insurance 

Life $241.76 

Health & Accident 41. 

Burglary 13.50 

Fire 9.17 

30543 

Building & Loan 564. 

Christmas Club 250. 



$1,794.17 .575 



III. Giving 

Church, Sunday School, etc $ 63.40 

Y . M . C . A . , Temperance, etc 39. 



$1,223.43 -393 



$ 102.40 .032 



Total $3,120.00 i.ooo 



Commentary. — As comment was invited, the following was 
offered : 

1. He is evidently very provident; his provision for the fu- 
ture, including savings and insurance, amounts to $1,223.43 — a 
little less than 40 per cent, of his total income. One certainly 
is justified in laying by for "a rainy day," but in determining 
the question of the proportion which may properly be set apart 
for this purpose, it is well to remember the words of our Lord, 
"Be not anxious for the morrow; for the morrow will be 
anxious for itself" (Matt. 6.34). 

2. He seems to be less generous than provident. One cannot 
but be struck with the great disparity between the amount de- 
voted to the church and other benevolence and the amounts ex- 



d 



ACCOUNTING 145 

pended in other directions. Recreation alone comes in for 
considerably more than the church, Young Men's Christian 
Association, and all benevolence put together. Indeed, the 
amount expended for benevolence is less than for any other 
item, excepting only medical and reading. It is this point more 
than any other that challenges attention in the analysis. 

3. The wife's portion does not indicate an ideal conception of 
the partnership which should exist in a family. Why should 
the receiving teller be regarded as almost the whole of the 
bank? Why should the man have the disbursing of fourteen 
fifteenths of the entire amount received? Does not the wife 
in the charge of the home do her part toward earning the family 
income just as truly as the husband in the world outside? This 
is a point upon which the light should be turned more and more, 
if there is to be a solution found for some of the real social 
problems of the v/orld. 

As one proceeds to study all items of expenditure 
with a view to making it possible to give as much as 
possible, it will be found desirable to make a budget. 
Here is a suggestive form, graduated with regard to 
incomes of from $60 to $200 a month; it may, of 
course, be condensed or expanded, as desired: 

A PERSONAL BUDGET 
(monthly) 

(The figures are given by way of suggestion only and subject 
to revision to suit each particular case in view of varying condi- 
tions, as to size of family, location, etc.) 

Receipts 
Wages (or net income from 

business, profession, etc.) $60. $75. $100. $120. $200. 
Other Sources * 5. * 30. * 



Total Income $60. $80. $100. $150. $200. 

* No " other resources." 



146 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

Expenditure 
I. Portion Set Apart for 

Giving $ 6. $ 8. $I2. $20. $35. 

Percentage for Giving . . . 

Local church support 

Benevolences through the 
church 

Local charities 

The poor, etc 

IL Living 

Food 24. 30. 32. 36. 45. 

Clothing 5. 6.50 8. 10. 15. 

House (rent or house- 
taxes, interest on mort- 
gage, fire insurance) ... 10. 14. 18. 20. 35. 

Service (servant, fuel, 
light, telephone, etc.).. 6. 8, 12. 14. 18. 

Self-improvement (reading, 
recreation, travel, medi- 
cal) 5. 5. 5. 7- 10. 

Incidentals ("Beware of 

dumping") 2. 3.50 5. 8. 15. 

III. Saving (life insurance, 

investment, etc.) 2. 5. 8. 10, 18. 

Total Living Expenses & 

Saving $54. ^72. $88. $105. $144. 

Percentage Expenses and 
Saving 

Farmer's Budget. Substantially the same form of 
budget will serve the purpose for most men, if it but 
includes the main essential items of food and raiment, 
with certain subdivisions for greater convenience of 
classification. As, however, the farmer's conditions 
are somewhat different from others, a special form 
which was worked out for use on dairy farms in New 



ACCOUNTING 147 

York state is given; for stock and other types of 
farming, it would need to be adapted. 

FARMER'S BUDGET 
( for the year ending ) 

Cash Income 

I. Dairy 

Milk checks $ 

Other dairy products sold . . 
Dairy stock sold 

Total $ 

II. Poultry 

Eggs sold 

Poultry sold 

Total $ 

III. Farm Produce 

Vegetables sold 

Fruit sold 

Grain sold 

Wood sold 

Hay sold 

Miscellaneous 

Total $ 

Produce Used for Food and Fuel 
(Market Value) 

From dairy 

From poultry 

Farm produce in general . . . 

Total $ 

Cash and Produce: Income 

from all sources Total $ 



Total Income $ 

Less operating expenses $ 



Net Income $ 



Per cent, set apart for Giving $ 



148 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

Expenses 

I. Food purchased $ 

II. Clothing $ 

III. Rent or Taxes $ 

Interest on mortgage 

Insurance on farm 

Total $ 

IV. Self-Improvement (reading, travel, medical, 
tuition, etc.) $ 

V. Incidentals $ 

VI. Operating Expenses 

Labor $ 

Feed and seed 

Fertilizer 

Fuel, light, telephone 

New equipment 

Repairs 

Depreciation 

Total $ 

VII. Giving 

Church envelops $ 

Special offerings 

Sunday-school 

All other benevolences 

Total $ 

Per cent. Given $ 

VIII. Savings (bank deposits, investments, etc.) . . $ 
Per cent. Saved $ 



Total Expended $ 

Farmers' Testimony. A central New York farmer 
writes : 

" When we began tithing some years ago, we realized that 
farmers have no stated income. We naturally looked around 
for some plan to follow. We finally concluded that for us 
the best proposition was to tithe on the basis of the previous 
yearns income. Since then we have kept a strict book account 



ACCOUNTING 149 

both of sales and the expense of production. In the expense 
accounts are such items as these : taxes and insurance, seed and 
feed purchased, fertiHzer, hired help. Taking these items from 
the gross sales, we arrive at our net income. We do not charge 
interest on our investment, as we put that against our living 
taken from off the farm and the house rent. We have pretty 
carefully demonstrated that these equalize each other. Since 
paying God his portion, he has blessed us not only spiritually 
but materially, and has made it possible for us to give to him 
offerings in addition to the tithe each year." 

Another farmer : 

" As a tiller of the soil, I must acknowledge that God directly 
enters into and is responsible for at least ninety-five per cent, of 
all crop production, leaving the results of my human labors not 
to exceed five per cent. As a Christian I must believe that I am 
not my own, and as a farmer I have every reason for acknowl- 
edging my stewardship by paying back to God at least a tenth 
of my net income. I want to be honest with God and treat him 
on the square. I can readily figure out what my income is. I 
can estimate our living gotten from the farm, keeping in mind 
that God wants not the letter but the spirit of the law, and that 
abundant returns, spiritual and material, come to those who fron*. 
the heart hear the promise, ' Honor the Lord with thy substance 
and with the first fruits of all thine increase.' " 

First Charge Against the Account. In working 
out a personal budget the first care should be to set 
apart as large a portion for giving away as is consistent 
with necessary outlay. The final adjustment of ac- 
counts will be affected by many considerations, but a 
definite minimum proportion should be determined in 
advance to be sacredly set aside as a first charge on all 
income. Ordinarily it should certainly be not less than 
a tenth. It is a libel on the Jews to say that " a Chris- 



150 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

tian under the gospel should certainly give not less than 
the tenth which every good Hebrew paid under the 
Mosaic law." For the fact is, the Jew paid for his 
religion, not a single tenth, but more nearly a third. 
The tenth was the pagan standard. But then that is 
where we all started if the truth be told as to our 
origin. It may be a good place for those to start even 
now who are not equal to the Christian standard. 

Government Calls for Accounting. The Income 
Tax law is serving as a schoolmaster to lead the people 
toward stewardship. No other nation in the history 
of the human race ever made such a provision as the 
United States in exempting what is given for religious 
and charitable purposes, up to 15 per cent. This as- 
sumes that the obligation to give away a definite por- 
tion of income is to be generally acknowledged and 
generously discharged. For the proportion suggested 
is higher than the tenth of other days and other peoples. 
While it sets no limit, it does suggest a standard and 
even holds out an inducement for giving. But without 
keeping an account how can one possibly arrive at a 
proportion? If the Income Tax is put upon a truly 
democratic basis, no class should be excepted. Does 
the farmer, for example, object that he cannot possibly 
tell what his income is until his crops are reaped and 
sold? He is referred back to the returns of the pre- 
vious year as the basis on which to figure out his 
obligations to the government. Let him do the very 
same in dealing with God, who sends rain from heaven 
and fruitful seasons, filling his heart with food and 



ACCOUNTING 151 

gladness. In dealing with the Lord of all there should 
be no attempt to take advantage of concessions such as 
politicians are prone for various reasons to offer to cer- 
tain classes at certain times by way of exemption in 
consideration of favors received or expected in return. 
Net Income. Let neither the farmer nor the baker 
nor the candlestick-maker take his living out of his in- 
come before figuring on the proportion to be set apart 
unto the Lord to be given away. Rather, let each one 
first sit down and estimate as nearly as possible what 
can be counted upon as the correct approximation to be 
estimated as the net income ; then determine the relative 
portions for giving and living and saving. In deter- 
mining these, the major factor will be the constraining 
love of Christ. The record of the Christians of Mace- 
donia is preserved imperishably, " how that in much 
proof of affliction the abundance of their joy and their 
deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liber- 
ality. For, according to their power . . . yea, and be- 
yond their power, they gave " (2 Cor. 8. 2, 3). Such 
a spirit upsets all ordinary proportions. Lord Bacon 
says : " Certainly if a man will keep but of even hand, 
his ordinary expenses ought to be but to the half of 
his receipts; and if he think to wax rich, but to the 
third part." Had Lord Bacon taken into account what 
ought to be the first and foremost item of a man's 
outlay, his giving, he might have modified still further 
the proportions which he suggests. Reckoning with 
expenses of living only, he goes on to say, " A man has 
need, if he be plentiful in some kind of expense, to be 



152 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

as saving again in some other; as, if he be plentiful in 
the hall, to be saving in the stable; and the like." 

None need be at a loss to determine what the net 
income is if he takes the completed account of the pre- 
ceding year as the basis on which to compute it. Net 
income is the total income less the cost of producing it. 
To the man on a fixed salary, that, together with what 
may come to him from investment or other special 
sources, constitutes his net income. If the minister's 
salary is supplemented by a manse or contributions in 
kind, the estimated value should be added to what is 
paid in money. The man who buys and sells, whether 
merchandise or stocks or any other commodity, reckons 
his profit only. The doctor would deduct from his 
gross income such expenses as office rent, conveyance, 
medicines, depreciation of instruments, and medical 
works. Other professional men would make corre- 
sponding subtractions. The farmer should estimate 
the value of the products of the soil consumed by his 
family, along with what he gets by barter or exchange ; 
and from this he should take whatever he pays for 
hired help, taxes, and interest on the land, with a fair 
amount allowed annually for depreciation of stock and 
implements. 

He who owns his home should add, to his other in- 
come, the rental value of it, less annual charges, pro- 
portioning his giving on the basis of this total. If, 
for example, A. has $2,000 a year income and rents 
a residence for $500, while B. with $1,500 a year, 
owns a home the rental value of which — less main- 



ACCOUNTING 153 

tenance charges — is $500, the income of both men is 
the same. Other things being equal, the giving basis 
of each would be $2,000. But, if B.'s house is mort- 
gaged, and, after paying interest, taxes, insurance, and 
wear and tear, he has an equity of but $100 a year, he 
would proportion his giving on the basis of $1,600. 

The Separated Portion. For all classes and under 
all circumstances the part to be given away, whatever 
the proportion, should be separated — preferably de- 
posited in a separate bank account — to be treated 
strictly as a Trust Fund. It will be a constant source 
of blessing and satisfaction. A friend who has for 
years done business in partnership with the King told 
me that he had long kept a separate bank account under 
the name of " The Nazareth Company." '' You 
know," he added, " my Partner did business in Naza- 
reth when he was down here, making yokes and plows 
and furniture and other things of a kind that would 
bring good prices. So I like to draw checks for him 
under the firm name now. It makes it all very real 
and near." 

A well-known candy manufacturer who built up a 
big business, began in early life to give away a tenth, 
later increased his giving to a fifth, then to a fourth, 
and at length to half of all his income, along with 
which he gave himself unsparingly in personal serv- 
ice. Those who received checks from him found 
** M.P.a/c " written on the face of them, these letters 
standing for " My Partner." When those near him 
expressed surprise, as they sometimes did, at the large 



154 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

amounts thus given, he replied, " That's not to my 
credit; the money is my Partner's; I only give it for 
him." 

William Ewart Gladstone carefully kept an account 
of his giving, and this showed that his gifts to good 
causes aggregated fully half a million dollars. In a 
letter which he wrote to one of his sons at Oxford 
University, he offered the following suggestions as to 
the use of money : 

" In regard to money, there is a great advantage in its 
methodical use. Especially is it wise to dedicate a certain 
portion of our means to purposes of charity and religion, and 
this is more easily begun in youth than in after life. The 
greatest advantage of making a little fund of this kind is, that 
when we are asked to give, competition is not between self on 
the one hand and any charity on the other, but between the 
different purposes of religion and charity with one another, 
among which we ought to make the most careful choice. It is 
desirable that the tenth of our means be dedicated to God, and 
it tends to bring a blessing on the rest. No one can tell the 
richness of the blessings that come to those who thus honor the 
Lord with their substance." 

Keeping Account with God. There are business 
men who not only carry religion into their business 
but likewise carry business into their religion. One of 
these is a manufacturer in central New York.^ Since 
setting out to practise proportionate giving he has 
made it a part of his business to enlist others to do the 
same, by offering to present a small leather-bound 

^ Harvey S. McLeod, of Troy, N. Y., whose experience as a 
lad is referred to in Problem II of the Stewardship chapter, 
page 26. 



ACCOUNTING 155 

Beneficent Account-book to any one who would join 
in setting aside a definite proportion of income. Dur- 
ing the years since he made the offer he has sent out 
more than two thousand ledgers, and he now has a 
wide circle of correspondents. 

Stimulated by his example, a Pennsylvania business 
man began some years ago to do likewise, and within 
eight years before his death, gave away 623 ledgers to 
those who subscribe to the following declaration : 



Believing that it is the duty of every Christian 
person to set aside at least ten per cent, of his 
gross earnings to be used for the purpose of ad- 
vancing the Kingdom of our Master and the 
bettering of our fellow men, I have opened this 
account with this purpose in view. I pray for 
the guidance of the Holy Spirit in all my deal- 
ings, and that I may have the blessing of our God 
in the work. 2 Cor. 9. 6, 7. 

Signed 



In the back of the ledger is this sample form of 
account : 

1900 BENEVOLENT ACCOUNT CR. 

June 3 To one tenth week's salary $ .40 

" 10 " " " " " 40 

" 17 " " " " " 40 

"24 " " " " " 40 

" 30 " " " of gift i.oo 

$2.60 

July I To balance due the Lord $1-75 



156 



MONEY THE ACID TEST 



1900 BENEVOLENT ACCOUNT DR. 

June 3 By Church collection $ .05 

" 3 " Sabbath-school collection 05 

" 5 " Flowers for sick 20 

" 10 " Church collection OS 

" 10 " Sabbath-school collection 05 

" 12 " Book to poor girl 25 

" 17 " Home Missions 10 

" 24 " Foreign Missions .10 

" 24 " Balance due the Lord 1.75 

$2.60 

When once we have come to act upon the principle 
that God's ownership of all implies our stewardship of 
all, then in no servile spirit of bondage but in the glad 
freedom of partnership we will delight in administer- 
ing every dollar of our income according to his will. 
" Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do 
all to the glory of God " (i Cor. 10. 31). " It is not 
baseness," says Lord Bacon, " for the greatest to 
descend and look into their own estate. Some fore- 
bear it, not upon negligence alone but doubting to bring 
themselves into melancholy, in respect they shall find it 
broken ; but wounds cannot be cured without searching. 
He that cannot look into his own estate at all, had need 
both choose well those whom he employeth and change 
them often; for new are more timorous and less subtle. 
He that can look into his estate but seldom, it behooves 
him to turn all to certainties." 

A "Conscience Fund"? Proportions will, of 
course, vary according to the size of the income and 
the demands for living under differing conditions and 



ACCOUNTING I57 

circumstances. The suggested general lines, however, 
will be found suitable to most people. The very neces- 
sity of adaptation in each case is part of the education 
and advantage of the process of stewardship. Large 
liberty is left to the individuals, and in the process of 
accounting many questions of conscience are sure to 
arise. A man may find it more difficult to give a tenth 
when his income is small and his family growing than 
to give a fifth or a third when his children are grown 
and supporting themselves; on the other hand, a man 
may be tempted to cut down the proportion of his 
giving when his business has increased and calls for 
larger capital or opportunities for more profitable in- 
vestments oifer. 

The man who cuts into his giving to-day in order 
to increase his working capital may persuade himself 
that by so doing he is making it possible to give more 
to-morrow, but he is dealing dishonestly with God. 
Sooner or later the account will be settled; for God 
keeps books, and no adding machine is as accurate in 
casting balances. " Be not deceived, God is not 
mocked." Not long ago a friend found himself 
obliged to go back over his ledger for a series of years 
to square up his giving, which had somehow been ac- 
cumulating a deficit " while conscience slept." Why 
should not the church as well as the federal govern- 
ment have a " Conscience Fund " ? 

Doing Business with God. There died a few years 
ago in a town of one of the Southern states a lawyer 
quite reserved, very successful. He was known be- 



158 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

yond his own town and state, and had won distinction 
in many cases carried to higher courts. His kindness 
to the poor, his devoted service to his church, and his 
unwearying efforts to bring to Christ the men he knew 
were recognized, but it was only at his death, when 
there came into the hands of the administrator of his 
estate several small worn account-books running over 
many years, that he was really known. Very common- 
place books, the entries set down in a neat and careful 
hand, with here and there a fern or clover leaf gath- 
ered by the way, they contain the story of a man's 
walk with God, the investment of the talents committed 
to his care. There are two accounts, his personal one 
and his account with the Lord. On one page he set 
down from month to month his receipts, regular in- 
come, interest on stocks, securities, real estate, his legal 
fees, increase in values of investments. Against these 
he set down his expenditures. Everything was put 
down — small sums for fruit, a shoe polish, presents to 
friends, physicians' fees, traveling expenses. Almost 
always the first item on the page for disbursements is 
the tithe — ^his debt paid to God. 

As one after another the small books are examined, 
the principles on which this quiet man ordered his life 
and service stand out upon the pages : 

I. Man a trustee. He decided early in his career 
that he was but an administrator for God. Farms, 
banks, stocks, bonds, salary, his legal gifts, energy, 
foresight, thrift, influence, — all were talents entrusted 
to him, and for them he must give account. 



ACCOUNTING I59 

2. Strict accounting. If he must render an ac- 
count to God, how could he do it honestly, if he had 
not kept one? So every cent spent for family ex- 
penses, the education of his children, pleasure, and 
business, was put down, along with the money given 
to God. These account-books, which he never knew 
would be so carefully read, reveal no sums spent for 
luxuries. As his practise widened, and the years 
brought increasing wealth, the gifts grew larger, but 
personal comforts and pleasures did not. It is a 
record of self kept under, that God might gain. 

3. A plan of giving. Running through the first 
books is the evidence that the tenth of his net income 
was regularly given, but very soon the proportion be- 
comes larger — a fifth or a fourth, as if growth of 
joy in service and in giving had steadily kept pace with 
growing wealth. No gain in values failed of entry in 
the thirty years through which the account runs. On 
one page there is an entry of $884.73, ^^ advance in 
land values; another of $250, a rise in bonds. The 
proportions for these sums are entered on the Lord's 
side of the ledger. When he found at the end of the 
year, that he had already given beyond the standard 
he had fixed, the books show that the excess was not 
carried over as a balance to his credit in the next year, 
but was left as an overpayment in his account with 
God. 

4. Thank-offerings. Over and above these sums 
which he regarded as debts to God, are those set down 
as thank-offerings. One item is $666.67, a thank- 



i6o MONEY THE ACID TEST 

offering for some unrecorded mercy. Again and again 
the words occur, " A thank-offering " — to hospitals, 
orphanages, foreign missions, ministerial relief. 

After his death the same clear perception of the 
personal responsibility which marked his relation to 
God through his life appeared in his will. Among its 
instructions providing for bequests to charities and the 
church are these words, " I hope this will prove satis- 
factory, as talents committed for God's service, and 
so used as to bring at the end to each one, ' Well 
done, good and faithful servant.' " ^ 

According as a man keeps account with God he 
will anticipate the day of the Great Trial Balance, and 
will prove himself to be in fact a creditor here and now 
or else a debtor f orevermore. 



POINTS FOR DISCUSSION 

VIII. Accounting 

A.IM : To show that according to the accounting of a steward, he 
will prove himself to he a creditor or a debtor. 

Questions Suggested by the Chapter 

What higher motive is there for keeping account of one's 
giving than the fear of the final judgment? 

Why did Zacchseus begin at once to render an accounting 
when he looked into the eyes of Jesus? 

How may children be most wisely trained to account for what 
they get and what they give? 

^ From a leaflet of the Laymen's Missionary Movement, Pres- 
byterian Church in U. S., Athens, Ga. 



ACCOUNTING i6i 

What advantage is there in getting young people to note what 
they spend, especially for pleasure? 

Work out as nearly as you can the percentages of your living 
expenses and your saving, compared with your giving for last 
year, and make your own comment thereon. 

How are those who do not receive their income statedly — as 
for instance some farmers — to determine the portion to be given 
and to keep account of it? 

How does the federal income tax help to promote stewardship? 

What advantage arises in setting aside the portion to be given 
and treating it as a Trust Fund? 

How is one hable to be misled as to his giving, if he keeps 
no account? 

How is net income to be determined? 

How should increment on invested capital be treated with 
reference to the proportion to be given? 

What bearing does our Lord's warning, " Let not thy left 
hand know what thy right hand doeth," have upon accounting 
for one's giving? 



Problems from Life 

I. A mother found under her plate at breakfast one morning 
a bill made out by her small son, Bradley, aged eight : 

Mother Owes Bradley: 

For running errands $.25 

" being good 10 

" taking music lessons 15 

" extras 05 

Total $.55 

Mother smiled, but made no comment. At lunch, Bradley 
found the bill under his own plate with fifty-five cents, and 
another piece of paper neatly folded like the first. Opening it, 
he read: 



i62 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

Bradley Owes Mother: 

For nursing him through scarlet fever nothing 

" being good to him nothing 

" clothes, shoes, and playthings nothing 

" his play-room nothing 

" his meals nothing 

Total Nothing 

What do you think the boy did? Can you suggest how best 
to have anticipated his presentation of the demand for services 
rendered? 

II. One who is now the manager of a telephone company 
started out in life by charging off one tenth of all income for 
the purpose of giving it away. After a while, he assumed an 
obligation for the support of a missionary as a personal sub- 
stitute on a foreign field. At the same time he covenanted with 
the Lord to increase his giving on a graduated scale: one sev- 
enth on reaching $5 a day; one fifth on reaching $10 a day; and 
so on, steadily advancing. When last I met him, he quietly 
remarked, " I've got to one fifth now." 

Mr. Nathanael Ripley Cobb, an exemplary young merchant 
connected with the Baptist church in Boston, at the age of 
twenty-three drew up and subscribed the following covenant: 

*' By the grace of God, I will never be worth more than 
$50,000. 

" By the grace of God, I will give one fourth of the net profits 
of my business to charitable and religious uses. 

" If I am ever worth $20,000, I will give one half of my 
net profits; and if I am ever worth $30,000, I will give three 
fourths ; and the whole, after $50,000. So help me God, or give 
to a more faithful steward, and set me aside. 

" N. R. Cobb." 

What would you consider a sound basis on which to work 
out such a scale? What factors should be taken into the 
account ? 



VIII 

INFLUENCING OTHERS 
"Opportunity with ability makes duty.* 



Am I my brother's keeper (Gen. 4.9) ? 

None of us liveth to himself (Rom. 14.7). 

Whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me 
to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should 
be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the 
depth of the sea (Matt 18.6). 

They are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both 
shall fall into a pit (Matt. 15. 14). 

And Jesus entered into the temple of God, and cast out all 
them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the 
tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold 
the doves (Matt. 21.12). 

Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see 
your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven 
(Matt. 5.16). 



VIII 

INFLUENCING OTHERS 

That life counts most which multiplies itself most 
highly in the lives of others. Desirable as it is to 
learn how to get the most and the best for oneself out 
of the handhng of money, it is a far greater thing to 
extend such benefit in the ever-widening circle of other 
lives. 

The Best of Heritages. Not long ago a young 
friend of mine, a lad of fourteen, died of pneumonia 
at the Hill School. On his desk was found an ac- 
count-book, showing that of his allowance of $12 for 
the term his necessary expenses had amounted to 
$1.26; besides this he had spent only 40 cents for per- 
sonal purposes, and the remainder, amounting to more 
than $10, he had given away — most of it for famine 
relief and war work. He was a fine specimen of the 
all-round man in the making. A normal, healthy, 
happy boy, fond of sport, a good golfer, tennis-player, 
and half-back on his foot-ball team, he had given him- 
self unreservedly to Christ. His heart was set on mis- 
sionary service in India. Having first given himself, 
the giving of his money was included as part of the 
consecration of his whole life. 

To find the key to that fine spirit of unselfishness we 

165 



i66 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

must go back two generations at least; for his own 
parents, and theirs in turn on both sides of the family, 
had been conscientious stewards of God's bounty. The 
lad's father, along with two college chums, throughout 
his course in college and theological seminary, had de- 
nied himself even what seemed necessary, so as to pro- 
vide the support of a missionary in India. Many a 
night was spent in an ordinary day coach, instead of 
taking a berth on the Pullman, when in his young man- 
hood that lad's father had traveled up and down the 
United States and Canada in the interest of the Chris- 
tian Student Movement. Having ever since, for about 
a quarter of a century, served without salary on both 
sides of the globe, influencing others by his example as 
well as by his precept, he has earned the right to say 
what he says in a booklet which he has written on 
stewardship : 

" The spirit of our giving has become one of compromise 
instead of sacrifice. Testing our stewardship on the principle 
of doing all to God's glory, let us make a trial balance while 
we are still in possession here on earth. Suppose we take time 
to make an estimate of the items of our expenditure on paper, 
and note the annual cost of our necessities and of our luxuries. 
Let us add the amount we spend in advancing the kingdom of 
God, and see what per cent, it is of our income. When we have 
finished the list, let us honestly ask ourselves whether we have 
spent all with the thought of glorifying God, and whether we 
could hand over the account to our Master without shame, con- 
fident of his ' Well done, good and faithful servant.' " 

Tracing the influence yet another generation further 
back, to the godly grandmother of my young friend, 
we get from her the key to the secret springs of that 



INFLUENCING OTHERS 167 

fine stewardship. She tells how her sons — of whom 
there were three, all of them giving their lives wholly 
to Christian work, world-wide in its outreaching power 
— learned this pivotal lesson of life. On their birth- 
days they were always given as many dollars as their 
years, and were taught to devote a tenth of it to the 
Lord. The youngest had given a tenth of his cheer- 
fully every year until he reached his tenth birthday; 
then he said a dollar was " too much to give away." 
His mother labored with him patiently, trying to show 
him that one tenth was the very least he could give. 
After a long struggle with himself he finally brought 
her the one dollar to put away, and the fond mother 
with pardonable pride declares, " The victory was won 
for all time. There was no more trouble with him 
after that, and he has ever since been a generous 
giver.'' 

Need any one wonder that, with such influences back 
of him and such principles installed by his father and 
likewise by his grandmother, my young friend rendered 
such an account of his stewardship as that left behind 
on his desk at the Hill School when he finished his 
course with joy? 

The Best Place to Learn to Give. The home is 
the best place of all to learn the lesson of Christian 
stewardship. Childhood is the time; and the younger 
the lesson begins, the better. The family should be 
conducted as a real partnership in which not only the 
father and mother but each of the children, likewise, 
have rights and corresponding responsibilities. It is 



i68 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

high time to get rid of the fallacy that the father of 
the family is the sole " wage-earner " and '' it all 
comes out of one pocket anyhow." No wonder that 
women gave up having pockets in their gowns. But 
styles have been known to change, and this domestic 
wrong shall yet be righted, suffrage or no suffrage so 
far as the polls are concerned. As w^ell might the wife 
monopolize the praying of the entire family as the 
father monopolize the giving. It is a miserable sort 
of home economics which compels the housewife to 
obtain in paltry pittances the money needed to meet the 
payments involved in providing for the household day 
by day. No less satisfactory is the system — or lack of 
system — which makes' the children mere platters to 
carry to church or Sunday-school the coin to be put 
upon the collection plate. For, so far as the child is 
concerned, that is not giving at all which does not in- 
volve any sense of possession and of voluntary appro- 
priation of what is given. 

A Home That Failed. Of the parables of Jesus, 
that of the Forgiving Father (Luke 15) — popularly 
misnamed '' The Prodigal Son " — is richest in sug- 
gestion of the effect of property upon personality. 
The story abounds in economic terms such as " give, 
" portion," " substance," " living," *' wasted," " spent, 
"fields," "house," "swine," "calf," "husks," "kid, 
" servant," " bread," " ring," " shoes," " serve, 
^^mine," "thine," "want," "perish," "hunger. 
The father, who is the central figure, enunciated the 
principle of partnership, " All that I have is thine." 



INFLUENCING OTHERS 169 

But the family was not a cooperative company. 
Both boys failed to enter into real partnership 
with their father; both failed also to fulfil their 
stewardship to the community. The family property, 
which should have been the bond of a mutual interest, 
proved to be a bone of contention, which severed the 
home ties. The elder brother, self-centered in covet- 
ousness and showing the unmistakable marks of the 
miser, needed to learn how to spend; the younger, self- 
centered in indulgence and developing the fatal ten- 
dencies of the spendthrift, needed to be taught to save. 
Had both learned the lesson of giving, they might have 
been saved — the one from hoarding and the other from 
wasting. The right influence does not appear to have 
been at work. Where was the mother? What kind 
of influence had been exerted when the boys were be- 
ing trained? Had they been taught as children to 
handle money and account for it ? " Give me " is the 
insolent demand of the younger; "thou never gavest 
me " is the querulous complaint of the elder. The 
essence of the latter's sin is against his brother; that of 
the former is primarily against the father. 

A Real Cooperative Society. I once visited a 
home in the Middle West where for years past there 
has been carried out a cooperative plan which might 
well be reproduced in many another home. When the 
father receives the wage, he gathers the whole family 
around the dining-room table and divides to each a 
portion, according to a carefully graduated scale. Cor- 
responding to this right there are responsibilities as- 



I70 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

signed to each one of the family circle. The boy is in 
charge of the heating of the house; he buys and puts 
in the coal and cares for the furnace. The daughter 
shares with her mother the domestic work of the home 
out of school hours. When the month's pay is re- 
ceived, each and all put aside a definite proportion for 
giving. After more than half a dozen years, the 
father of that family in reply to my inquiry states, 
that '' the plan holds as when you were here. Salary 
has advanced another $300 a year (which is in line 
with the terms of the contract of our Father). The 
house which we then rented is now our own. We 
have insurance which would yield $7,000 in case of my 
death by ordinary cause, or $9,000 if by accident." 
For ten years now the gifts of that family have ranged 
from $400 to $550 a year, according to circumstances, 
aggregating for the whole period over $5,000, which 
is fully one third of the entire income. The influence 
of the personal example has extended to a circle of 
fellow railway employees, who have combined together 
to support missionary work at home and abroad, 
♦ amounting in all to $10,163.54 in the decade. If the 
influence of one Christian man, of one family, can 
widen like that, to the very ends of the earth by the 
application of Scriptural principles of stewardship, 
without any organization whatever, what cannot be 
accomplished by installing these same principles in the 
life of an entire church and of many churches? 

The Church Responsible. The church has a large 
function to fulfil in developing the grace of giving. It 



INFLUENCING OTHERS 171 

is the family magnified many fold — and much more 
than that — and in view of the very large and vital part 
that stewardship has in the molding of character, the 
church should give a leading place in all its program to 
instilling the principles of proportionate as well as sys- 
tematic giving in the lives of all its members, younger 
and older. Some churches are doing so. 

Make a Survey. Take the experience of one, 
which with 615 members and a budget of $5,000 has 
recently been doing a valuable piece of laboratory work 
in cultivating stewardship. At the outset a careful 
survey of the giving power of the church was made. 
This showed : 

1. That less than 11 per cent, of the members con- 
tribute over 82 per cent, of the whole amount. 

2. That those who give most generously are pro- 
portionate givers. 

3. That the proportionate givers are the most reg- 
ular worshipers, and that those who give generously 
also — as a rule — pray as well as worship. 

4. That practically all who attend the prayer-meet- 
ing are proportionate givers. 

With these facts in view plans were initiated to 
enlist the members to give proportionately as well as 
systematically. 

A Program. Another church has pursued the fol- 
lowing program : 

1. Once each month the pastor preaches on some 
phase of stewardship. 

2. Following up the sermon, a carefully selected 
pamphlet is placed in each home of the congregation. 



172 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

3. Every one in the church is furnished a card on 
which to fill out the various items, showing " How I 
Use My Money " and summing up so as to bring out 
the contrast between " Total for Myself " and *' Total 
unto the Lord." (See page 142.) 

4. A Christian Stewardship enrolment card is pre- 
sented, with a view to signing up those who have come 
to a conviction such as would lead them habitually to 
set apart a definite portion of their income. 

All this is preparatory to the annual Every Member 
Canvass, when every one in the church is visited at 
home with a view to registering subscriptions for both 
local church support and benevolences. 

Begin with the Young. The most promising field 
for cultivating stewardship is among the young. The 
Sunday-school and the young people's society afford 
fertile ground for applying stewardship principles. In 
one Sunday-school, after a talk on Giving with per- 
sonal testimony as to the blessing which results in 
spiritual joy, assurance in prayer, and a real sense of 
partnership with God, the president of the county bank 
rose and said, " I see this matter in a new light, and 
pledge myself henceforth to give proportionately." 
The opportunity was then extended to all, and forty- 
four arose in token of their purpose ; among them were 
two entire classes of boys and young men, also a 
lawyer, a dentist, a physician, and the leader of the 
Sunday-school orchestra. Fifty Beneficent Account- 
books were ordered.^ 

* See pages 154, 155. 



INFLUENCING OTHERS I73 

Christian Stewardship Movement. The fulness 
of time is now come for a Christian stewardship move- 
ment in which the various communions shall all unite 
for a nation-wide propaganda. Through the Laymen's 
Missionary Movement the leaders of practically all the 
Protestant evangelical churches are already agreed 
upon a statement of basic principles and a form of 
enrolment. Much valuable literature is being devel- 
oped which is available through the denominational 
and interdenominational agencies. 

In some sections of the church, curricula on the sub- 
ject of stewardship as well as missions are available or 
are in course of preparation, adapted to each depart- 
ment of the Sunday-school and the other organizations 
of the local church. 

Prize Essay Competition. The study of steward- 
ship is being stimulated by offering prizes for the best 
essays on the subject written by pastors and other 
church officers, theological students, and young people 
in the Sunday-school and young people's societies. 
Hundreds of essays have been written and more are 
in course of preparation. Thus much constructive 
thought is being developed with far-reaching reflex 
effects. The air is electric with powerful currents 
which need only to be harnessed in order to move the 
church out to new achievements and a new spiritual 
awakening. 

Steps to Take. The following steps are suggested 
as a means of establishing the practise of Stewardship 
in a church ; 



174 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

1. Make a survey of the membership: 

( 1 ) To learn who are already giving propor- 

tionately; 

(2) To get each one to note for his own 

guidance how much he has given for 
religious and charitable purposes the 
past year as compared with income; 
likewise, what was expended for liv- 
ing and what was saved, in propor- 
tion to the amount given. 

2. Distribute literature on the subject, selecting it 
with care and delivering a copy in each home, accom- 
panied by a letter from the pastor. (See list of pam- 
phlets on pages 189, 190.) 

3. Study the Scriptural teaching as to stewardship : 

(i) In a series of mid-week prayer-meetings, 
carefully planned so as to present per- 
sonal experience; 

(2) In study circles, men's Bible classes, or 
discussion groups, using a text-book 
such as this one. 

4. Have a special sermon or series of sermons 
preached, leading up definitely to enrolment. 

5. After presenting the case in an inspirational way, 
test the response, as you would get the verdict of a 
jury, by putting these two questions to a rising vote : 

(i) Who are already giving a definite pro- 
portion? (Have these remain stand- 

(2) Who will join in doing so? 

6. Sign up then and there those who are ready to 
subscribe to a declaration such as the following, which 
can be obtained from denominational and interdenomi- 
national headquarters : 



INFLUENCING OTHERS 175 

The Fellowship of Stewardship 
Principles 

1. God is the owner of all things. 

2. Man is a steward and must give account for all that is 
entrusted to him. 

3. God's ownership and man's stewardship ought to be ac- 
knowledged by setting apart, as an act of worship, a separated 
portion/ 

4. The separated portion is to be administered for the king- 
dom of God and the balance treated as no less a trust. 

Enrolment 

I accept these principles and will set apart a definite portion 
( per cent.) of my income to administer for the kingdom 
of God. 



Name. .. 
Address. 



(Date) , 19... 

(The foregoing to be retained by the signer) 

(A duplicate of the above form to be turned in to the Pastor or 
other leader appointed for this purpose) 

7. Bring the signers together occasionally for con- 
ference and prayer with a view to securing concert of 
action in propagating Stewardship principles. With 
practically no additional organization, the movement 
may be extended through the regular services and 
existing societies of the church, until the entire mem- 
bership is included in this goodly fellowship. 

Features of the Fellowship. It will be noticed that 
the proposal involves practically no additional organi- 

^ Most proportionate givers with moderate incomes begin with a tenth 
as a Scriptural and reasonable starting-point. Those with larger means 
should begin with a larger proportion and keep increasing the proportion 
as income increases. The Federal Income Tax Law exempts up to 15 per 
cent, given to organizations operated exclusively for religion, charity, etc. 



176 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

zation. Rather is it a platform of Scriptural prin- 
ciples upon which those who are willing to practise 
proportionate giving can strengthen each other's hands. 
The regular services should be utilized, rather than 
multiply meetings. And thorough study of steward- 
ship should be carried on in the Sunday-school and in 
study classes. An arrangement is being adopted by 
many churches which unifies the organizations so as 
to have them meet weekly on the same day, constitut- 
ing a School for Missionary and Benevolent Educa- 
tion, for a term of six to twelve weeks before Christ- 
mas and a similar term after New Year's. In some 
sections Sunday evening is devoted to this purpose; in 
others, the mid-week prayer-meeting is made the focal 
point to which the several organizations are articu- 
lated. The Women's Societies meet early in the after- 
noon; committee meetings are held from five to six 
o'clock; then supper in common for the whole church- 
membership, at a nominal price; followed by an enter- 
taining missionary presentation, dramatic or otherwise, 
for a half hour; then all separate into classes for study, 
with a variety of elective courses, in the Bible, Mis- 
sions, or Stewardship; finally all come together in a 
devotional service for intercession. Into such a scheme 
the Fellowship of Stewardship fits most appropriately, 
being included in one or more of the Study Groups and 
occasionally featuring the results of its study, in the 
way of charts and other exhibits, in the after-supper 
presentation and in the prayer-meeting. 

The Fellowship does not lay down a uniform pro- 



INFLUENCING OTHERS 177 

portion for all givers to follow. It allows large lati- 
tude, but it illuminates conscience with the light of 
Scriptural teaching and by implication suggests that 
most Christians under the gospel should start with 
giving not less than Hebrews under the Law and even 
pagans in a still earlier period gave. 

Put into Operation. Although the plans outlined 
in this chapter have but recently crystallized, not a few 
churches of all sorts in various sections have put them 
into operation with reassuring results. One of these 
took advantage of the Christmas season as an oppor- 
tune time to give effect to the plan of the " Fellowship 
of Stewardship." A card was issued which provides 
for the dedication of self, substance, and service, with 
definite declarations of purpose under each of these 
divisions. Under that of " Substance " the purposes 
are : 

1. To contribute to the support of my church and 
missions regularly and as God has prospered me. 

2. To make an offering at the communion seasons 
to the deacons' fund, to be used in their ministry to the 
needy of the church and community. 

3. To enroll in the " Fellowship of Stewardship " 
by which I agree to set aside statedly a definite propor- 
tion of my income to be used in the work of the Lord 
in my church, in my community, and in all the world. 
This may be one tenth or any other proportion of my 
income which I decide the Lord wishes me to devote 
to him. 

Another pastor issued a " Service Enlistment 
Pledge " to his people, and at once 25 per cent, of the 



178 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

congregation signed up. The pledge contained the 
following conditions: 

I hereby pledge to give into the treasury of my church at least 
one tenth of my income during the war, the same to be admin- 
istered by the official board of the church for the following 
causes : 

1. The necessary local church support, 

2. The benevolent boards of the church, 

3. The army and navy work of the church as carried on by 

the Y.M.C.A., Red Cross, etc., 

4. The famine relief work of the church, such as Assyrian 

and Armenian relief. 

Thus with wide latitude the principles are being ap- 
plied in different ways, always, however, with the same 
result, not alone in the inevitable increase of gifts, but 
— more important far — in the spiritual quickening of 
the givers individually and consequently of the church 
as a whole. 

Not long ago in a western Pennsylvania church one 
Sunday morning an envelop was put on the plate con- 
taining six crisp $50 bills, with nothing to indicate the 
giver. It came from one of 120 members who are 
known to be giving proportionately ; that was all that 
could be ascertained. But it is significant of what can 
be expected when the practise of stewardship is the 
rule rather than the rare exception, as at present. 

Let the Leaders Lead. What is needed above 
everything else is a courageous and consistent leader- 
ship on the part of the pastors. This is sadly lacking 
for the most part at present. Not that ministers are 
like the prophet Samuel's sons, who " turned aside 



INFLUENCING OTHERS I79 

after lucre" (i Sam. 8.3). On the contrary most 
of them are, as Paul enjoined Titus, *' not greedy of 
filthy lucre" (Titus 1.7); few are " teaching things 
which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake " (Titus 
I. 11). No, it is not ''the deceitfulness of riches" 
(Matt. 13. 22) — unless it be in very exceptional cases 
— that turns our spiritual leaders away from doing 
their duty to develop the grace of giving; but too often 
" the cares of the world," due in many cases to insuf- 
ficient support, cut the nerve of their leadership at 
this very vital point. Many a minister is muzzled on 
the subject of Stewardship by church officers who do 
not hesitate to tell him, that he has " no business to 
meddle with the money matters of the church." If he 
is fearless enough to disregard the risk of '* losing his 
place," he vs^ill make it unmistakably clear, that, while 
he is not concerned to know what any one gives to the 
support of the church, his salary being involved in that, 
yet when it comes to the benevolences the case is alto- 
gether different; for one of his primary responsibilities 
is for the spiritual development of his people; and, 
since giving is one of God's means of developing grace, 
he cannot without incurring guilt remain ignorant as 
to the exercise of that grace. 

But at this very point comes the crucial test to many 
a minister of God. Is he himself living up to God's 
standard? Is he honoring the Lord with the first- 
fruits of his own increase? If not, how can he with 
any power lead others to do so? It is just here that 
Satan gets in his subtlest suggestions. 



i8o MONEY THE ACID TEST 

" Corban." *' Give a tenth? " said the minister of 
an up-state church to a fellow minister who was urg- 
ing the obligation of proportionate giving as incumbent 
alike on all. " Why, man, I give ten tenths : my whole 
life is consecrated to God's service." When the an- 
nual Every Member Canvass took place, he had it 
understood that no visitor need call at the manse, as 
none of his family could be expected to contribute. 
" That's what's the matter with our church," after- 
ward remarked the church treasurer. " Is it any 
wonder that neither the minister's son nor daughter, 
although both earning salaries, contribute a single cent 
to the support of the church or its work? " What else 
could be expected with such an example? Being 
" chips of the old block," they set up essentially the 
same old claim of " Corban " — with which our Lord 
dealt when he said, " If a man shall say . . . That 
wherewith thou mightest be profited by me is Corban, 
that is to say. Given to God; ye no longer suffer him to 
do aught for his father or his mother; making void 
the word of God" (Mark 7. ii, 12). In the case 
cited there is this difference, that it is their obligation 
to the heavenly Father that these children default; 
though, by the same token, they may yet accord the 
same treatment to their earthly parents. 

To all such might well be applied the wholesome if 
somewhat caustic treatment administered by a friend 
of mine who leads a men's Bible class in St. Louis. 
His patience had been sorely tried by a sanctimonious 
old Pharisee who was wont to freely advertise his 



INFLUENCING OTHERS i8i 

complete consecration. One day when the question of 
devoting a definite portion of one's possessions to the 
purposes of God's kingdom was under discussion, this 
brother said : 

" I have long since got beyond that point; all that 
I have is consecrated to the Lord." 

" Well," said the leader, " if I were the Lord, and 
you were to say that to me, I would say, ' Fifty per 
cent, off for cash.' " 

Undoubtedly he who has truly made an unreserved 
consecration of himself to God will have no reluctance 
about sacredly setting apart a definite portion as the 
earnest of the faithful devotion of the whole life, 
whether in the form of money or time or talent. 
When the leaders lead the way, the flock will follow. 

Faithful Dealing Needed. It will no doubt be 
necessary for the shepherd to use his staff to bring 
some of the wayward sheep into line. Thus does the 
Rev. J. B. Gambrell in his trenchant tract, " Who 
Owns the Wool ? ", show the responsibility of our 
spiritual leaders for faithfully pressing the claims of 
stewardship upon their flocks : 

" Shear the sheep ? Yes, frequently and close. The pastors 
are the shepherds ; and it is their business to feed the sheep, care 
for them, and shear them. A shepherd who neglects to shear his 
sheep ought to be turned off. He is an unfaithful servant of 
the great Owner. Pastors need to face this question. They 
must face it, for the time is at hand when pastors will be judged 
according to their works, — not by their dignity or their preten- 
sions, but by their works, — and one of the works is to shear the 
sheep. 



i82 MONEY THE ACID TEST ' " 

" But the question has two sides ; God's side and our side. Is 
it not hard on the sheep to shear them? Not at all. It is good 
for them in every way. If sheep be not sheared, they become 
unhealthy. How many of God's saints are surfeited with the 
things of this world ! Their spirituality is smothered by a 
plethora of the things of this life. Many are sick because their 
lives have no outlet. Their affections are turned after their 
earthly possessions and not set on things above. One of the 
best things a pastor can do for his people is to induce them to 
give liberally to good causes. He is doing the best thing for his 
people when he brings them to recognize their obligations to God 
in his financial affairs. So important is this matter in the 
churches and in the lives of the people, that it demands special 
and extremely earnest treatment. Some of the sheep must be 
cornered and crowded before they will submit to the process 
clearly taught in God's Word ; but they must be sheared. 

" The question takes on another practical turn : ' Where thy 
treasure is, there will thy heart be also.' This is Christ's word 
fulfilled in every life. If sheep are not sheared, they drop their 
ivool, or the devil picks them. Alas ! for the waste of God's 
money in the service of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and 
this to the hurt of God's people. Sin costs more than religion. 
Bad habits cost far more than the most liberal giving to God's 
•causes, if we count money and what is more than money. Rob- 
bery of God is a horrible and undoing sin. Giving to God has 
a wonderful power to bind the life to him." 

God's prophets of old did not hesitate to deal uncom- 
promisingly with the question of a man's account- 
ability to God for the use of his money. For a man 
to withhold the portion which God required to be set 
apart for purposes of religion they called plainly rob- 
bery ; as Malachi puts it, " Will a man rob God ? Yet 
ye rob me . . . even this whole nation " (Mai. 3. 8, 9). 

James, the brother of our Lord, was no less out- 
spoken : '' Com.e now, ye rich, weep and howl for youil 



INFLUENCING OTHERS 183 

miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are 
corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your 
gold and your silver are rusted ; and their rust shall be 
for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh 
as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last 
days" (James 5. 1-3). 

Those who will sow the seed of Scriptural teaching 
as to stewardship will surely reap rich harvests in 
due season. A little while ago in a new mission station 
in southern China, near the border of Siam, eight non- 
Christian men appeared one Sunday morning just as 
the public service was commencing. They listened 
eagerly to the preaching of the Word and when the 
collection plate had been passed without being pre- 
sented to them, they got up and walking one after the 
other to the front of the church each placed an offering 
on the plate. Being asked afterward whether they 
knew what they were doing, the oldest took out from 
a cloth a copy of the Scriptures which he said he had 
received from a missionary years before and had care- 
fully kept and studied ever since. From it he had 
learned that giving is an essential part of worship. 

John Wesley's Message. John Wesley proclaimed 
the message of stewardship with no uncertain sound. 
One of his most famous sermons made these three 
points: " Earn all you can; save all you can; give all 
you can." A farmer is said to have listened with rapt 
attention as the famous preacher unfolded his theme. 
After the first division, *' Earn all you can," he nudged 
his neighbor and whispered, " I never heard preaching 



i84 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

the like of that before. Yon man has good things in 
him.'^ When Wesley went on to denounce thriftless- 
ness and waste, satirizing the wilful wickedness which 
lavishes in luxury, the farmer rubbed his hands in glee 
and thought that, what with accumulating and hoard- 
ing, surely salvation had come to his house. So, when 
the preacher had finished the second division, '' Save 
all you can," the old man grew more elated and ex- 
claimxcd, " Was there ever preaching the like of this? " 
But when the preacher had done with his third and last 
point, '' Give all you can," the farmer exclaimed, " Aw 
dear, aw dear, he's gone and spoiled it all ! " 

What John Wesley preached he likewise practised 
right royally. Beginning with a salary of 30 pounds 
(nearly $150) a year, he gave 2 pounds. The second 
year, when he got 60 pounds, he still lived on 28 
pounds, and gave away 32 pounds (nearly $160). 
When his income reached 120 pounds, he was living 
in the same simple way and giving away 92 pounds 
(nearly $460). 

When he died, his inventory included only his 
clothes, books, and carriage, and enough for a simple 
burial. He had given away, it is said, in his lifetime 
over 24,000 pounds ($120,000). The steady increase 
of his income confirmed the principle, " There is that 
scattereth and increaseth yet more" (Prov. 11.24). 
'' He that soweth bountifully shall reap also bounti- 
fully " (2 Cor. 9.6). 

There is need of many such fearless preachers to- 
day. It should not be left'to the Socialist to usurp the 



INFLUENCING OTHERS 185 

place of spokesman to give the message of steward- 
ship. Will the church prove a faithful prophet to 
teach the truth concerning it to the waiting world? 

Fulfilling a Prophecy. Thus will be fulfilled this 
prophecy of Horace Bushnell: 

*' The money power, which is one of the most operative and 
grandest of all, is only beginning to be Christianized. What 
we are waiting for is the consecration of the vast money power 
of the world to the work and cause and kingdom of Jesus 
Christ ; for that day when it comes will be the morning, so to 
speak, of the new creation. That tide wave in the money power 
can as little be resisted, when God brings it, as the tides of the 
sea ; and, like these, also, it will flow across the world in a day." 

According as Christians fulfil or fail to fulfil this 
function they become stepping-stones to higher things 
or stumbling-blocks in the way of those who are wait- 
ing to enter into the kingdom of God. 

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION 

VIII. Influencing Others 

Aim : To show that according to the inUuence one exerts, espe- 
cially upon the young, by example as well as precept, in 
regard to giving, one is bound to be either a 
stepping-stone or a stumbling-block. 

Questions Suggested by the Chapter 

How should the family be regarded in relation to the income, 
in order to best develop the character of children? 

Suggest ways in which a child may best be enabled to earn. 

How should the money be furnished a child to contribute in 
church and Sunday-school? 



i86 MONEY THE ACID TEST 

What financial training of my childhood helped me most? 

What relation is there between the giving and the worship and 
work of a church? 

What is done to develop proportionate giving in your 
church? In the young people's society? In the Sunday-school? 

How many proportionate givers are there among your 
members ? 

If the member is not known, how best can you find out? 

What place is given the subject of stewardship in the preach- 
ing you hear? Why is it not given greater prominence? 

State the essential features of the " Fellowship of Steward- 
ship." 

How can you most effectively help to establish and extend it? 



Problems from Life 

I. A young woman, working as a stenographer in an office 
whose manager was a constant advocate of proportionate giving, 
was led to begin the practise by setting apart a tenth. After a 
while she was surprised to see how much money she had avail- 
able for giving. While realizing new joy in helping here and 
there as never before, she found there was a steadily increasing 
balance in the sacred fund. Becoming more and more interested 
in foreign missions, she decided to contribute to the support of 
a specific object abroad. But not being able by herself to under- 
write any considerable sum, she sought to get others to unite 
with her. One after another girls working in adjoining offices, 
all of them on small salaries, commenced to proportion their 
incomes and joined together to support a missionary represen- 
tative in Latin America. Most of them sent in applications and 
obtained the Beneficent Account-book referred to on page 155. 
Now there are twenty-three self-supporting girls in that circle in 
North America who are multiplying their own lives and blessing 
the lives of many others in South America by their partnership 
with the Son of God in extending his kingdom. 

How can you, likewise, help to widen the circle of propor- 
tionate givers? 

II. The Rev. J. Ross Stevenson, when pastor of the Fifth 
Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City, received a letter 



INFLUENCING OTHERS 187 

enclosing a month's wages from a Swedish servant-girl just be- 
fore the annual offering for foreign missions was to be taken. 
She wrote that she had been making the offering a subject of 
special prayer and it had been put into her heart to give this 
sum. Lest Satan should tempt her not to give so much, if she 
waited until Sunday, she sent it at once. When the pastor read 
the note from the pulpit, there was a profound silence, and the 
offering that day was doubled by the example of one girl's 
sacrifice. 

Two men who had come over from New Jersey for that 
service walked down the avenue afterward together without 
either saying a word for some distance. One asked the other 
whether he could lend him money to get home; then his friend 
confessed that he, too, had put into the offering every cent he 
had with him. Both were obliged to walk to the ferry and find 
a good Samaritan in Jersey City to assist them to get home. 

How do you think the Lord who still sits over against the 
treasury regards such an offering as was made that day? 

III. A prominent Pennsylvania manufacturer tells me that 
in his youth he heard a Friend at a meeting-house near Phila- 
delphia throw down a challenge which he declared he had made 
publicly hundreds of times without contradiction. My friend, 
likewise a Friend, took it up and has continued to repeat it for 
a quarter of a century and more with the very same experience. 
It is this : that no one has ever failed to prosper in material 
things who has faithfully put to the test this word of God; 
" Honor Jehovah with thy substance, and with the first-fruits 
of all thine increase; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, 
and thy vats shall overflow with new wine" (Prov. 3.9, 10). 

Can you cite any exception to the fulfilling of that promise? 
Are you yourself putting it to the test and, if so, with what 
result ? 



BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR SUPPLEMENTARY 

READING 

Books 

Single Copy 

A Man and His Money, Harvey Reeves Calkins. 

Methodist Book Concern, New York . . . $i.oo 

Christianizing the Social Order, Walter Rauschen- 

busch. Macmillan Company, New York . . . 1.50 

Jesus Christ and the Social Question, Francis Green- 
wood Peabody. Macmillan Company, New York 1.50 

Money Mad, Cortland Myers. Fleming H. Revell 

Company, New York i.oo 

Money: Thoughts for God's Stewards, Andrew 

Murray. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York .25 

Property: Its Duties and Rights, Introduction by the 
Bishop of Oxford. Macmillan Company, New 
York 1.75 

Stewardship, C. A. Cook. American Baptist Publica- 
tion Society, Philadelphia .10 

Stewardship Starting Points, Harvey Reeves Calkins. 

Methodist Book Concern, New York ... .50 

The Law of the Tithe, Arthur B. Babbs. Fleming H. 

Revell Company, New York i.OO 

The Sacred Tenth (2 vols.), W. Henry Lansdell. 

Edwin S. Gorham, New York 7,50 

The Tithe, E, B. Stewart, Winona Publishing Com- 
pany, Chicago .50 

The Use of Money: How to Save and Spend, E. A. 

Kirkpatrick. Bobbs Merrill Co., Indianapolis, Ind. ^-^o 



Pamphlets ^ 



Single Per 
Copy Hundred 



Catechism on Christian Stewardship, R. L. 

Walkup. Presbyterian Church in U. S., 

Jackson, Mississippi 05 $1,00 

Confessions of a Business Man, George Innes. 

Laymen's Missionary Movement, New York . .05 3.50 
Elements of Stewardship, Harvey Reeves Calkins. 

Methodist Book Concern, New York . . .03 i.oo 

* Add postage, if ordering a single copy by mail. 

189 



IQO 



BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Single Per 
Copy Hundrei. 

Perpetual Motion, Stanley White. Hubbard Press, 

Auburn, New \ork 03 $1.00 

Proportionate Giving, Robert E, Speer. Hubbard 

Press, Auburn, New York 03 i.oo 

The Basis of Stewardship, George F. Pentecost. 

Hubbard Press, Auburn, New York . . . .03 i.oo 

The Divine Law of Giving, Richard Duke. 

Methodist Book Rooms, Toronto, Canada . .05 2.50 

The Jarring of Jacob Shapleigh, Harvey Reeves 
Caikins. Methodist Book Concern, New 
York .03 I.OO 

The New Testament Conception of the Disciple 
and His Money, Edward I. Bosworth. Ameri- 
can Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions, Boston, Massachusetts . . . Free 

The Opportunity of the Hour, George Sherwood 
Eddy. Student Volunteer Movement, New 
York 05 2.50 

The Scriptures on Stewardship, Compiled by 
Henry C. Applegarth. Department of Mis- 
sionary Education (Baptist), New York . .02 .80 

The Stewardship of Life, Joseph N. Shenstone 
and J. Campbell White. Laymen's Mission- 
ary Movement, New York 05 2.50^ 

The Victory of Mary Christopher, Harvey 
Reeves Calkins. Methodist Book Concern, 
New York 15 

What We Owe: from a Lawyer's Standpoint, 
J. P. Hobson. Presbyterian Church in U. 
S., Richmond, Virginia 05 2.5a 

Your Own or Another's, David McConaughy. 

Hubbard Press, Auburn, New York . . .03 i.oo^ 



INDEX 



Acid test, money an, 6, 53, 95, 96 

Accounting, for all of lite, 3; for 

money, essential, 136; with God, 

154. IS5 

Acquiring, two ways of, 41, 42; 
Scripture relating to, 45 

African Christians set example, 108, 
III, 1 12 

Almshouse, Blackwell's Island in- 
mates, their gifts, 20, 21 

Arthur, William, on the first-fruits, 
57; on the Jewish tithes, 123 

Bacon, Lord, on spending, 56, 151 

Baldwin, Matthias W., 26 

Beneficent Account-book, 154, 155, 
172, 186 

Bequest, a way of acquiring, 41, 
42; but not of giving, 100 

Blacksmith supporting his mission- 
ary substitute, 20 

Boy's bill to his mother, 161 

British Labor Party, its platform, 
36 

Budget, of time, 51; a sample bal- 
ance sheet, 143, 144; farmer's, 
146-148 

■Pushnell, Horace, his prophecy, 185 

Business, conversation of men of 
big, 12 

Cain and Abel, their giving con- 
trasted, 115 

Calkins, Harvey Reeves, property 
involves personality, 43, 44; The 
Victory of Mary Christopher, 136 

Carey, William, his practise in giv- 
ing, 118, 119 

Character, affected by things, 8, 9; 
through stewardship, 23, 24; 
through acquiring, 42; through 
spending, 53, 54; through saving, 
78; through giving, 94; through 
proportioning, 122, 129, 130; 
through accounting, 138, 154; 
through influencing others, 165- 
171, 180-183 

Child's Allowance Chart, 137-140 

Chinese givers, 183 

Christian stewardship movement, 
T73-T77 

Church, responsible for training in 
stewardship, 170-171, should make 
a survey, 171; a stewardship pro- 
gram, 171, 172 

Cobb, Nathaniel Ripley, his cove- 
nant, 162 

Colgate, William, how he began 



giving, 17, 18; his grandson fol- 
lows in his footsteps, 17 

Colorado, a pocket of silver opened 
in, 94 

Comfort, a, defined, 65 

Commands of New Testament not 
less binding than those of the 
Old, 97 

Conscience Fund, a, 156 

Convenience, a, defined, 65 

Converse, John H., 26 

" Corban," a modern instance, 180 

Dennis, James S., on the contribu- 
tion box, 103 

Dodge, Cleveland H., remark to 
Richard C. Morse, 120 

Dodge, William E., his pleasure in 
giving, 15 

Drummond, Henry, on work, 9 

Enrolment in the Fellowship of 
Stewardship, form of, 175 

Family, a cooperative concern, 145, 
169, 170 

Farmer, the Foolish, 81, 83; sam- 
ple budget, 147, 148; should in- 
clude in his estimated income 
what he takes from the soil for 
his living, 152 

Farmers' testimony, 148, 149 

Fellowship of Stewardship, The, 
175; features of, 175, 176 

Fiske, Fidelia, how her Sunday- 
school scholar saved and gave, 
88, 89 

Forms of Account: Child's Allow- 
ance Chart, 140; Young People's 
Expenditure, 142; analysis of a 
sample account, 144, 145; per- 
sonal budget^, 145, 146; farmer's 
budget, 147, 148 

Gambrell, J. B., " Who owns the 
Wool?" 181 

Giving, God's antidote for selfish- 
ness, x; a check upon spending, 
56; the measure of God's capac- 
ity of, 93; method of raising 
men rather than money, 94; 
what it is: not acquiring merit, 
98; a trait of God, 99; not be- 
queathing, 100; not self-adver- 
tising, 100; not exchanging, loi; 
tested, not by sequel but by mo- 
tive, 104; defined, io§; objects, 
1 05; Scriptural directions, 106; 
its supreme expression,^ 109 



191 



'igz 



INDEX 



Gladstone, William Ewart, letter to 
Ills son, 154 

Gordon, A. J., story of William 
Colgate, 17 

Gore, Bishop, on property, 37-39 

Goucher, John F., 40 

Government inculcating steward- 
ship, 150 

Grocer's tombstone, inscription, 10 

Haidarabad, prime minister's stew- 
ard, 4 
Havergal, Frances Ridley, on shop- 
ping, 62 
Hobhouse, L. F., on property, 36 
Home the best place to learn stew- 
ardship, 167; a good example, 
169, 170 
Hopkins, Jared and Johns, 5 
Hypocrisy, still rife in the church, 
97; rebuked, 180, 181 

Income, net, defined, 152; includes 
usufruct as well as money-wage 
and profit, 152 

Income tax, typical instances, 31, 
32 

Individual, the middle partner, x; 
his part in property, 41 

Influencing others to give, 165 _ 

Inheriting entails additional obliga- 
tion, 42 

Inslee, Samuel, 14, 15 

"Iron Maid," "the," 10 

Jenks, Jeremiah W., on training 
Jewish youths, 78 

Jesus' teaching, as to property, 39; 
acquiring, 45, 46; spending, 58, 
59; saving, 80, 81; giving, 97, 
98; proportioning, 127; account- 
ing, 137; influencing others, 168, 
169 

Kennedy, John Stewart, 16, 17 _ 
Kirkpatrick, E. A., on child train- 
ing through spending, 54 

Lansdell, W. Henry, 124 

Law, William, his pen-portrait of 
" Miranda," 20, 21 

Lawyer's account with God, 157- 
160 

Leaders wanted for development of 
stewardship, 178, 179 

Life, all of it a stewardship, 3 

Losing may result from excessive 
saving, 79; from unwise invest- 
ing, 79, 80 _ _ 

Luxury, a, distinguished from a 
necessity, 65, 66; samples of, 68 



MacBride, Robert E., 64, 68 

Macleod, Harvey S., 26, 154 

Maiden lady starting the Madras 
Y. M. C. A. building, 19 

Mammon may be converted into 
a means of grace, 67 

Merchant who used the Lord's 
money for his own business, 47, 
48 

Minister's, salary held back is rob- 
bery, 84; manse, to be reckoned 
as income, 152 

" Miranda," a typical steward, 
portrayed by William Law, 21, 
22 

Money, defined, 7; what it is: a 
medium of exchange, 6; a meas- 
ure of the value of things, 7; 
also of men, 7, 8; it likewise 
helps to make men, 8, 54; it 
talks, revealing what man is, 11; 
it represents stored personality, 
12; it determines destiny, 10; 
its magic power, 8, 53; only a 
part of one's stewardship, 13, 
119; various types of, 6, 7; one's 
first, 42 

Morse, Richard C., 120 

Mortgage, God holds the first, 33 

Moses, Margaret, her example, 20 

Motive: differentiates between lux- 
ury and necessity, 63 ; between 
giving and paying for value re- 
ceived, 101-104; for acquiring, 
46; for saving, 77-80; for giv- 
ing> 93; for accounting, 135; for 
influencing others, 165 

Motto on Royal Exchange, London, 

33, 34 

Mottoes for chapters: stewardship, 
i; acquiring, 29; spending, 49; 
saving, 69; giving, 91; propor- 
tioning, 113; accounting, 133; in- 
fluencing others, 163 

Moule, Bishop, on Christ's bond- 
servant, 98 

Necessity, a, distinguished from a 
convenience, a comfort, and a 
luxury, 6s 

Net income, defined, 152 

Ownership, distinguished from pos- 
session, 31; originally God's, 35 

Partner, the Chief, his part in 

property, 39, 40 
Partners, three, contribute to the 

value of property, 35 
Partnership not inconsistent with 

stewardship, 4 
Paul's teaching as to spending, 58; 

his complete silence as to tithing, 

125 



INDEX 



193 



Perkins, George W., on the obli- 
gations of wealth, 85, 86 
Personality involved in property. 

Possession distinguished from own- 
ership, 31 

Poteat, Dr. E. F., on title to prop- 
erty, 34; on relative investment 
of partners, 41 

Poverty, Jesus puts no premium 
upon, 58, 59 

Principles of: stewardship, 23, 24; 
acquiring, 44, 45; spending, 58; 
saving, 80; giving, 93; propor- 
tioning, 127-129; accounting, 159, 
160; influencing others, 183 

Prize Essay on Stewardship, com- 
petition, 173 

Production, Jesus the Master of, 
45, 46 

Property, its value contributed by 
three partners, 35; Bishop Gore, 
on the subject of, 37-39; respec- 
tive contributions, 39-41 

Prophecy of Horace Bushnell, 185 

Proportionate giving, distinguished 
from systematic, 107; instances 
of, 131, 132 

Railway engineer as the Lord's 
treasurer, 2j 

Reading, supplemental, 189, 190 

Rich, consideration of the right to 

be, 37, 85. 86 , , , 

Rockefeller, John D., how he be- 
gan giving, 2j 

Royal Exchange, London, motto on, 

33 
Ruler, rich young, 127 

Sabbath not coordinate with the 
tithe, 125 

" Sacred " distinguished from 
" Secular," 121 

Saving, nations learning ways of. 
71, T2.; offset by waste, jy, re- 
sults in accumulation 'of monej', 
75 ; should be made tributary to 
extension of Christ's Kingdom, 
75, ^()', should begin in child- 
h^jod, ^6', benefits of, 78; ways 
of, 79; objects of, 80; peril of, 
82, 83; instances of, 183, 184 

Schauffler, A. F., on the nature of 
money, 12, 13 

Schoolboy's account-book, 165 

Scotch lad who got the worth of 
his money, 62, 63 

Scriptures on: stewardship, 22, 2y, 
acquiring, 45; spending, 58, 59; 
saving, 80-82; giving, 93, 97, 9^, 
109; proportioning, 115, 125-128; 
accounting, 137; influencing 
others, 168, 169, 182, 183 



Separated portion, the, 153, 175 

Silver Rule, enjoined by Paul, 126; 
derived from the ancient law, 
126 

Society, its part in property, 40, 41 

Spending, its effect on character, 
55 ; regulated by saving and giv- 
ing, 56; for what and how, 61 

Stenographers who have widened 
their world, 186 

Stevenson, J. Ross, his message 
from a servant, 186 

Steward, of the prime minister of 
Haidarabad, India, 4; the Un- 
righteous, 22, 23 

Stewards, typical, 14-20 

Stewardship, what it includes, 3; 
how consistent with partnership, 
4; a method of raising men 
rather than money, x, 5 ; a test 
of character, 2y, The Fellowship 
of, 175, 176; the home the best 
place to learn it, 167 

Stewart, E. B., on the tithe, 124 

Swedish servant-girl, her example, 
187 



Tagore, Rabindranath, story of a 
beggar and a king, 103 

Talks, money, 11, 51 

Things, Jesus' attitude toward, 59 

Time, is money, 3; should be 
budgeted, 5 1 

Tithe, a moot question, 116, 117; 
practised by pagans, 122; by 
patriachs, 123; by the Hebrew 
nation, 123, 124; conditions un- 
der twentieth century democracy, 
different from those of the 
theocracy, 123, 124; embodied 
not as is the Sabbath in Decalog, 
but in the ceremonial law, 125 

Value of life. Christian versus non- 
Christian estimate, 1 1 

Unrighteous Steward, the, 22, 23 

War. its effect in stimulating stew- 
ardship, ix, 71 

Webster, Daniel, his greatest 
thought. 135 

Wesley, John, his famous sermon, 
183, 184 

Wilson, P. Whitwell, on the Fool- 
ish Farmer, 83 

" Wool, who owns the," 181 

Youth, the time to begin saving, 
76-78; and to train in steward- 
ship, 172 

Yuan, Elder, his business basis, 48 



LIST OF 

MISSION BOARDS AND 

CORRESPONDENTS 



Tlie Missionary Education Movement is conducted in behalf of the 
Foreign and Home Mission Boards and Societies of the 'United States and 
Canada. 

Orders for literature on foreign and home missions should be ad- 
dressed to the secretaries representing those organizations, who are pre- 
pared to furnish special helps to leaders of mission study classes and to 
other missionary workers. 

If the address of the secretary of the Foreign or Home Mission Board 
or Society of your denomination is unknown, orders may be sent to the 
Missionary Education Movement. All persons ordering from the Mission- 
ary Education Movement are requested to indicate their denominations 
when ordering. 
Advent Christian — American Advent Mission Society, Rev. George E, 

Tyler, i6o Warren Street, Boston, Mass. 
Associate Reformed Presbyterian — Young People's Christian Union and 

Sabbath School Work, Rev. J. W. Carson, Newberry, S. C. 
Baptist (North) — Department of Missionary Education of the Cooperating 

Organizations of the Northern Baptist Convention, 23 East 26th Street, 

New York City. 
Baptist (South) — Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Conven- 
tion, Rev. T. B. Ray, 1 103 Main Street, Richmond, Va. (Correspon- 
dence concerning both foreign and home missions.) 
Baptist (Colored) — Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Con- 
vention, Rev. L. G. Jordan, 701 South Nineteenth Street, Philadelphia, 

Pa. 
Christian — The Mission Board of the Christian Church: Foreign Missions, 

Rev. M. T. Morrill; Home Missions, Rev. Omer S. Thomas, C. P. A. 

Building, Dayton, Ohio. 
Christian Reformed — Board of Heathen Missions, Rev. Henry Beets, 2050 

Francis Avenue, S. E., Grand Rapids, Mich. 
Church of the Brethren — General Mission Board of the Church of the 

Brethren, Rev. Galen B. Royer, Elgin, 111. 
Congregational — American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 

Rev. D. Brewer Eddy, 14 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. 
American- Missionary Association, Rev. C. J. Ryder, 287 Fourth Avenue, 

New York City. 
Congregational Education Society, Rev. Miles B. Fisher, 14 Beacon St., 

Boston, Mass. 
The Congregational Home Missionary Society, Rev. William S. Beard, 

287 Fourth Avenue, New York City. 
Disciples er Christ — Foreign Christian Missionary Society, Rev. Stephen 

J. Corey, Box 884^ Cincinnati, Ohio. 
The American Christian Missionary Society, Mr. R. M. Hopkins, Carew 

Building, Cincinnati, Ohio. 



'Evangelical Association — Missionary Society of the Evangelical Asso- 
ciation, Rev. George Johnson, 1903 Woodland Avenue, S. E., Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 

Evangelical Lutheran — Board of Foreign Missions of the General Coun- 
cil of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in N. A., Rev. George Drach, 
Trappe, Pa. 
Board of Home Missions of the General Council of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in North* America, 805.-807 Drexel Building, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 
^oard of Foreign Missions of the General Synod of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in the U. S. A., Rev. L. B. Wolflf, 21 West Sara- 
toga Street, Baltimore, Md, 
IBoard of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Evangelical 

Lutheran Church, Rev. H. H. Weber, York, Pa. 
Board of Foreign Missions of the United Synod of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in the South, Rev. C. L. Brown, Columbia, S. C. 

iFRiENDS — American Friends Board of Foreign Missions, Mr. Ross A. Had- 
ley, Richmond, Ind. 
Evangelistic and Church Extension Board of the Friends Five Years' 
Meeting, Mr. Harry R. Keates, 13 14 Lyon Street, Des Moines, Iowa. 

'German Evangelical — Foreign Mission Board, German Evangelical Synod 
of North America, Rev, E. Schmidt, 1377 Main Street, Buffalo, N. Y. 

Methodist Episcopal — The Department of Missionary Education. Repre- 
senting the Board of Foreign Missions, the Board of Home Missions 
and Church Extension, and the Board of Sunday Schools, 150 Fifth 
Avenue, New York City. 

Methodist Episcopal (South) — ^The Educational Department of the 
Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Rev. 
C. G. Hounshell, 810 Broadway, Nashville, Tenn. (Correspondence 
concerning both foreign and home missions.) 

Methodist Protestant — Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist 
Protestant Church, Rev. Fred C. Klein, 316 North Charles Street, 
Baltimore, Md. 
Board of Home Missions of the Methodist Protestant Church, Rev. 
Charles H. Beck, 507 Pittsburgh Life Building, Pittsburgh, Pa. 

JMoravian — The Department of Missionary Education of the Moravian 
Church in America, Northern Province, Rev. F. W. Stengel, Lititz, 
Pa. 

Presbyterian (U. S. A.) — The Board of Foreign Missions of the Pres- 
byterian Church in the U. S. A., Mr. B. Carter Millikin, Educational 
Secretary, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. 
Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., 
Mr. Ralph A. Felton, Director of Educational Work, 156 Fifth Avenue, 
New York City. 

TsESBYTERiAN (U. S.) — Executive Committee of Foreign Missions of the 
Presbyterian Church in th« U. S., Mr. John I. Armstrong, 210 Union 
Street, Nashville, Tenn. 
General Assembly's Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the 
U. S., Rev. S. L. Morris, 1522 Hurt Building, Atlanta, Ga. 

-Protestant Episcopal — The Domestic and Foreign. Missionary Society of 
the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U. S. A., Mr. W. C. Sturgis, 
281 Fourth Avenue, New York City. 

^Reformed Church in America — Board of Foreign Missions, Rev. L. J. 
Shafer; Board of Home Missions, Rev. W. T. Demarest; Board of 
Publication and Bible School Work, Rev. T. F. Bayles. 25 East 
Twenty-second Street, New York City. 

IReformed Church in the United States — Mission Study Department, 
Representing the Boards of Home and Foreign Missions, Mr. John H. 
Poorman, 304 Reformed Church Building, Fifteenth and Race Streets, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

United Brethren in Christ — Foreign Missionary Society, Rev. S. S. 
Hough, Otterbein Press Building, Dayton, Ohio. 
Home Missionary Society, Miss Lyda B. Wiggim, United Brethren 

Building, Dayton, Ohio. 
Young People's Work, Rev. O. T. Deever, Otterbein Press Building, 
Dayton, Ohio. 



United Evangelical — Home and Foreign Missionary Society of the United 

Evangelical Church and Board of Church Extension, Rev. B. H. Niebel, 

Penbrook, Pa. 
United Norwegian Lutheran — Board of Foreign Missions United Nor* 

wegian Lutheran Church of America, Rev. M. Saterlie, 425-429 South 

Fourth Street, Minneapolis, Minn. 
Board of Home Missions, United Norwegian Lutheran Church of Amer» 

ica, Rev. Olaf Guldseth, 425 South Fourth Street, Minneapolis, Minnu 
United Presbyterian — Mission Study Department of the Board of Eotr 

eign Missions of the United Presbyterian Church of North Amerlc*. 

Miss' Anna A. Milligan, 200 North Fifteenth Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Board of Home Missions of the United Presbyterian Church of North 

America, Rev. R. A. Hutchison, 209 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Universalist — Department of Missionary Education of the General Sttn- 

day School Association, Rev. A. Gertrude Earle, Methuen, Mass. 
Send all orders for literature to Universalist Publishing House, 359 

Boylston Street, Boston, Mass, 

CANADIAN BOARDS 

Baptist — The Canadian Baptist Foreign Mission Board, Rev. J. G. Brown, 
223 Church Street, Toronto, Ontario. 

Church of England — The Missionary Society of the Church of England 
in Canada, Rev. Canon S. Gould, 131 Confederation Life Building, 
Toronto, Ontario. 

Congregational — Canada Congregational Foreign Missionary Society, Miss 
Effie Jamieson, 23 Woodlawn Avenue, East, Toronto, Ontario. 

Methodist — Young People's Forward Movement Department of the Mis- 
sionary Society of the Methodist Church, Canada, Rev. F. C. Stephen- 
son, 299 Queen Street, West, Toronto, Ontario. 

Presbyterian — Presbyterian Church in Canada, Board of Foreign Mis- 
sions, Rev. A. E. Armstrong, 439 Confederation Life Building, To- 
ronto, Ontario. 

Revised to 19 17 



• I 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



qq 



WIKBt^^^m LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 


Iffi^fl^^^^^^^^^^^^^l 


1 Mill 


1 1 i III IMIMI III! 




il 1 l!!:l:liJ II 'HI II: \ 

014 666 492 1 M 



